


Little Wisps in Little Boys

by You_Light_The_Sky



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Everyone is a little in love with Tsuna, Fluff, Gen, Ghosts, Implied Pairings, M/M, Melodrama, Reborn is a reaper, Tsuna can see the dead, Tsuna feels, episodic and then eventual arcs, exorcist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-02-28 23:25:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2751083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/You_Light_The_Sky/pseuds/You_Light_The_Sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exorcising spirits is not Tsuna's forte. Running away from them and locking himself in his house is. But then he meets Reborn and learns that there's more to spirits than just malice (or rather, they get into some disagreement over killing or befriending said spirits). Then there's the Vongola and the Seven Reapers who want to use him... Hints of All/27, R27, X27</p><p>Also on ff.net</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alone Boy: Reaper Blood

**Author's Note:**

> My first KHR fic. Hope it's not too terrible.
> 
> Disclaimer for the whole fic: I don't own KHR, Akira Amano does and she's brilliant.
> 
> Warnings: Ghosts, swearing, dark allusions to murder and other gruesome deaths, ooc character probably
> 
> My Title Page is from my DA [here](http://youlightthesky.deviantart.com/art/Little-Wisps-in-Little-Boys-522810362)

 

** **

**Part 1: Alone Boy **

** Episode 1: Reaper Blood **

On Monday morning, Tsuna wakes up and there’s a baby in a suit, standing on his chest. A baby with a fedora on his head. Also holding a gun. The baby, that is.

Tsuna stares. The baby stares. They both stare.

“Ciaossu,” says the baby, “I am Reborn, the afterlife’s number one exorcist and hitman, now your live-in home tutor. I’ll be training you to exterminate and control all spirits in this realm as the head of the Vongola clan.”

Tsuna only stares some more. Maybe if he lays very still and pretends that he’s still sleepy, then this particular apparition will leave him alone (as is Tsuna’s plan for most spiritual encounters.) If he’s lucky, he’ll never see this… baby-spirit-thing again. Yup. Back to sleep.

Except then he hears the click of ammo jumping eagerly into the cockpit of a pistol and Tsuna only just opens his eyes to see the mouth of the pistol pointed at his forehead before he dodges just in time to miss the bullet hole that now graces his favourite pillow.

“ _Hieee?!_ ” Tsuna backs away from the bullet hole and the baby, blankets pulled up against his nose as if they could protect him from the dead (but, oh, Tsuna knows very well they can’t.) “W-What did y-you do that f-for?!”—and then—“Oh my god, you’re _real?!”_

Another bullet whizzes towards him and Tsuna falls off his bed to miss it. He winces and rolls around, clutching his knee while staring forlornly at the new hole in his wall. Oh well, his idiot father makes enough money to pay for that (god knows how) but back to the point—

The baby or Reborn or whatever-he-is crosses his little arms together and smirks down at Tsuna. How a smirk from such a small adorable thing can be defined as the most terrifying image in Tsuna’s existence, well, Tsuna has no freaking idea and Tsuna has seen some freaky things.

“Yes, idiot-Tsuna, I am corporal and can be seen by other living beings. If I choose to. I am not like the everyday spirits that you can see.”

“How—”

“I know everything. Get used to it. And your father’s side of the family has been involved in the exorcism business for generations,” Reborn’s smile becomes eerie, “…you could say that they make a great profit out of it… especially in the criminal world if you understand my meaning…”

Suddenly several odd things that Tsuna has always ignored begin to connect together. His father’s odd jobs. How his parents were never bothered by Tsuna talking to his ‘imaginary’ friends. How Nana never called him a liar (unlike the other kids at school and strangers at the market) when he started playing with someone who wasn’t there. The lectures his father gave sometimes about never going near any gruesome crime scenes… to let the ‘family’ take care of it…

“Y-y-you mean my dad’s part of some sort of… of… exorcist mafia?!”

“Yup.”

In retrospect, Tsuna should have seen this coming.

-

“I don’t want any part of this,” Tsuna says after he recovers from his fainting spell and has enough tea to balance his senses. Never go outside without a good cup of tea, Nana always tells him and Tsuna supposes that the habit has rubbed off on him.

“The Vongola family has profited from capturing and controlling the most dangerous spirits to do their bidding for them. Europe would be a plague of evil spirits if not for the Vongola. They are the most powerful family. Their spiritual powers give them the advantage in their business with the criminal world,” Reborn lectures him, drinking yet another cup of expresso (and is that even allowed for babies, Tsuna wants to blurt but he knows better. Reborn is no infant.)

“Are you even listening to me?!” Tsuna scowls. He looks to Nana for some help but his mum giggles to herself and hands him a bowl of miso soup. “You can’t be serious. I can’t be a mafia boss or an exorcist leader or whatever you’re talking about. I can barely keep dangerous ghosts away from me when I’m outside. It’s no good. You should get someone else.”

When Tsuna’s cup seems to explode from Reborn’s bullet and hot tea spills all over Tsuna’s shirt and lap, Tsuna doesn’t know why he’s even surprised anymore.

“Now Reborn-chan,” Nana crosses her arms, “that is not a nice way to play. My favourite cups are ruined now and Tsuna could have been burned!”

Apparently the little demon has _some_ form of good manners, at least for mothers, because Reborn bows his head. “I sincerely apologize, Mama. Next time, I will make sure to keep the collateral from Tsuna’s… discipline… to a minimum.”

Nana only nods and gushes about how adorable Reborn is.

“Mum, are you just going to go along with this?!” Tsuna stands up.

“Well,” Nana tilts her head, “it’s not my place to interfere… Your papa always said that you’d take over the family business and that I shouldn’t get involved…”

“Dad hasn’t been home in _years_! What does he know about the qualifications for this… head boss Decimo thing anyways?! If he actually remembered that he had a family maybe he’d see that his _son_ can’t do anything let alone run a criminal organization! I can’t believe you’re taking his side again!” Tsuna shouts before he squeaks and clamps his hands over his mouth.

He looks fretfully at Nana, whose smile of frozen sunshine seems to wobble against her face.

“Mum… I…” his hands want to tremble against his lips. “I’m sorry. I… I’ll just clean this up…” Tsuna reaches over towards the shards from the broken tea cup and sweeps them into his hands, ignoring the cuts they create against his skin.

“Tsuna…”

“No,” Tsuna quietly shakes his head, avoiding Nana and Reborn’s stares. “It’s alright. I can clean it.”

They don’t speak as Tsuna throws away the shards and then washes his hands of the blood and broken bits of clay. He stares at the tiles of the kitchen like they will speak back to him to replace the heavy silence as he rushes out the door with his backpack.

-

A massive ooze of eyeballs and hands slithers across Tsuna’s path as he runs down the street. But unlike every other day, Tsuna doesn’t scream and hide behind a stop sign. He doesn’t try to stifle his screams so as to not draw attention to the monstrous things that haunt his neighbourhood. For once, he runs past them as if he can’t see them at all.

“…Why did I say that…?” Tsuna wants to bury himself in the deepest parts of the ocean and never resurface. “Mum hasn’t done anything wrong…”

But still, all these years of seeing the unnatural and Nana couldn’t say anything to him? Couldn’t reassure him and take the time to explain things? Tsuna’s shoulders shake as he tries to stop the burning in his eyes. Mum had to have her reasons, Tsuna tries to tell himself, even if they were unbelievable and relied on his no-good father…

“That was rude of you, Dame-Tsuna, leaving me behind,” says a presence that lands on his head.

Tsuna shrieks and tries to wave it away, only to be smacked on the hand. “Ow! What are you—Reborn?! But I just…” he looks back down the street. It’s been four blocks, “…and you were…?”

“I’m coming to school with you, idiot,” Reborn remarks from his perch on Tsuna’s head.

“What?! But why?! People are going to see you! And ow!”

“Don’t sort me into your mortal standards, Dame-Tsuna. I don’t belong to any of the living or non-living realms. I can make myself be seen by will… except for those of your blood, with the Sight. No one without the Sight will see me unless I wish it. Now onwards, slave,” Reborn taps against Tsuna’s ears with his pistol. “Show me what a typical day of your meaningless existence is like.”

“Do I even have a choice?”

“No.”

Right. Stupid question.

Tsuna glances around and notices, finally, the gathering of disfigured and mis-mashed spirits that have gathered around him. His hand rushes up and Tsuna nearly bits his fingers as he tries not to shout. Instead he freezes in the middle of the street, eyes darting back and forth at the usual guests around him.

Old man Minami who died three weeks ago in a brutal car accident waves lazily at him. A high school girl who was chopped to pieces, dangles her torn leg at him, waiting for any reaction that he can _see_ her. Construction workers that were buried to death all slushed together like a child’s figurines of play-do crushed back into a ball.

He has to fight the urge to vomit as he shuts his eyes tight and walks forward.

“What’s wrong?” Reborn remarks from above. “Is this why you miss so much school?”

Tsuna doesn’t answer. Doesn’t want to think of countless days where he collapsed in the middle of the road and stayed at home, sick for a week, because so many spirits wanted to touch him, wanted to steal back vitality. ( _Come on, boy, just another sip, another touch. You have so much life in you and you’re so young, you don’t need it all, come on, just another sip for Auntie…_ ) Or the days where he hid in the park and curled up against the slide, waiting for Haru to come.

“Yeah,” he says. “Sometimes.”

Reborn snorts. “You have the Sight. You should be used to this.”

Tsuna stops in his tracks.

“How can _anyone_ get used to this?!” he gestures to the blood, to the limbs and distorted human features.

“Well, with the amount of gory films that your generation seems to enjoy watching—”

“No one should be _used_ to looking at this!” Tsuna shouts. “That’s not right! We _should_ be shocked by corpses and blood. We _should_ be terrified. How can I just walk past this and be okay? How can I walk past them and not wonder how they died? Or if I’m next?”

The being on his head stills, “…Tsuna…” but it’s too late.

They’ve heard him. The other spirits. There’s no way that Tsuna can cover up his outburst for anything less than acknowledgement of their existence. They gaze at Tsuna which such hunger and shock that Tsuna’s surprised that he hasn’t been devoured immediately.

He shrinks back, “I… I didn’t mean… please just leave me alone…!”

But they inch closer, almost reverently. _You see us_ , they seem to moan all at once, _you see us, you see us, you see us…_

Reborn suddenly jumps off Tsuna’s head and hovers in front of Tsuna protectively. Tsuna gapes as Reborn’s infant form seems to… grow… into the shape of a tall man, all in black, and a deep, frightening voice tells Tsuna to look away. Look away or be shot.

Of course Tsuna does. (What was that story Nana used to tell him about? Yes, Orpheus and Eurydice, the man who walked into the underworld to bring back his wife but all he had to do to keep her was _don’t look back._ But he did, foolish man, and Tsuna is too scared to look back even if part of him excitedly whispers _look, look, you have to look_.)

The inhuman shrieks of the spirits seem to carve themselves into Tsuna’s very bones.

-

“What… what was _that?!_ ” Tsuna says from the ground. He tries to get up. He really does, but he can’t seem to. Everything is cold and he can’t feel his fingers and he saw light from the corner of his eyes, jagged red light devouring shadows…

“Exorcism. Or the execution of corrupted spirits,” Reborn remarks, small and adorable again (but never innocent, Tsuna will feel that killing intent from Reborn for the rest of his life.)

“That… I’ve _never_ seen an exorcism like that!”

Well, Tsuna has never seen a live exorcism at all but Reborn probably knows that.

“I thought I told you to look away…” a promise of something bloody crawls into Reborn’s voice and Tsuna shakes his head vigorously.

“I didn’t! Look, that is! I just saw from the corner of my eye and I could feel… I could feel their beings being just…” _annihilated,_ Tsuna doesn’t say. He shivers. Whatever those souls had become, they didn’t deserve that fate; no one deserved it. “That wasn’t normal,” Tsuna ends up saying instead.

Reborn’s eyes gleam and Tsuna shivers. Burning souls and spirits gleam in those eyes. Their shrieks. “That was the original and true method of exorcism by the seven reapers of the crossroads. What you felt were the reaper flames.”

“…Reaper flames?”

“Flames that can end a soul’s existence or purify them into heaven. Flames that let you see the dead and give you a connection with spirits,” Reborn nods as tiny flickers of red flames twist and slither between his fingers. “This is why you’ve been chosen as Decimo.”

“No,” Tsuna shakes his head, “I don’t have that, I don’t!”

Reborn blows a tongue of hot fire towards Tsuna’s face and Tsuna jumps back in shock.

“Idiot. Don’t you see? Those with Vongola blood are the _only_ human exorcists that use the _true_ method of exorcism. Only you and those with your bloodline can use these flames to perform true exorcism. All other exorcists use wilder and unreliable methods of controlling the occult. None are as effective as the Vongola. The Primo was said to be have been the child of a reaper and a mortal, after all,” Reborn shrugs. “Apparently reaper blood is still strong even ten generations later.”

Tsuna stares down at his hands, trying to imagine fire flowing in his veins, burning him up.

“But I can’t… I’ve never made that sort of thing happen…”

“That’s why I’ll be training you, Dame-Tsuna. The Vongola family need you to become a well-trained exorcist, to be able to kill any spirits you encounter so that you can kill a certain… pest… for them back in Italy,” Reborn hops up onto Tsuna’s shoulder.

“Wait, what pest?” Tsuna wants to run back home and hide while he still can. He tries to imagine the spirits they faced earlier and having to kill more of them just seems…

Reborn hits him on the ear again. “You don’t need to concern yourself with that for now, Dame-Tsuna. You couldn’t fight that pest if you even tried in your current state.”

“What makes you think that I’ll agree to you teaching me?!” Tsuna demands, feeling his earlier anger rush back. Those screams, that red flame just eating and eating and the feeling of _nothing,_ of just _empty space_ instead of those unpleasant beings just—

“Because you don’t want to be scared anymore,” Reborn replies, “do you, Tsuna?”

Tsuna feels his mouth go dry.

“I could teach you to protect yourself. You wouldn’t have to be afraid to walk to school anymore. You wouldn’t be called a liar anymore either, if you played your cards right. Who knows? Maybe your grades would go up because you wouldn’t have to worry about this spirit nonsense anymore. No more spirits.”

An uncomfortable feeling swims into his chest, clutching at Tsuna’s heart and clawing at his lungs.

No more spirits.

What would that even mean for him? A normal life. Does he even know how to have one? Being able to look his classmates and teachers in the eye without seeing their ghosts and being pushed around for spreading ‘rumours.’ Being able to tell Nana about his day without omitting anything. Seeing her smile about his day and not feeling guilty.

He’d be normal. Fixed. (Almost.)

“I…”

“Hurry up, Dame-Tsuna,” Reborn slaps the back of his neck. “You’re going to be late for school.”

Tsuna swallows down the tangled and prickly answer in his throat and nods. He can’t help but scan the rest of the street for any more monstrous spirits but Reborn just hisses impatiently.

“I’m here to handle anyone that tries to touch my student. Now go!”

He jumps and dashes towards the corner, letting the wind wipe away the wetness on his cheeks. For all of Reborn’s abuse, Tsuna is grateful that the baby doesn’t mention how red Tsuna’s eyes are when he finally arrives in class and the baby sits down on his desk to face him.

“Here,” Tsuna folds up his jacket and puts it on the corner of his desk; he’ll think about what he said to Nana, about this spirit stuff later, “this will be more comfortable to sit on.”

Reborn only smiles.


	2. Alone Boy: His Only Friend

** Episode 2: His Only Friend **

Tsuna is always running. That’s how anyone would describe him. Running. Always running. If not that, then ‘sick’ at home, locked up in his room.

He comes home with cuts and bruises from tripping or getting clawed by the broken edges of a fence or branch. Bullies don’t catch Tsuna anymore. He’s run so much and been all over town that he knows the best hiding places from spirits and his flight-mode just has him rushing away from any sign of danger.

Getting caught means blood or collapsing in the streets again. Getting caught means seeing Nana upset and talking angrily into the phone again while Tsuna tries to tell her that he’s fine, it’s all fine and she doesn’t need to tell Dad (the old man doesn’t care anyways) and he’s so sorry for worrying her.

He’s never met anyone good while running. Tsuna thinks that he misses worlds of time and news with his lifestyle. He barely knows what’s on television or who the trendiest celebrities are. His classmates’ faces swirl together as a murky unity as Tsuna is always on guard for the next ghost. He doesn’t remember any of their names (except Yamamoto and Hibari, distinct in their personalities) maybe because he can’t stand disappointment.

( _Who are you talking to, Sawada?)_

_(What—liar! There’s no one there, stop playing this game, I don’t like it!)_

_(That Tsuna is always by himself, whispering… I think he curses us basically…)_

_(Ignore them. You don’t need them, Tsunayoshi-kun, I can be your friend… here, come closer, you’re so warm. Promise me that you won’t leave me…! **Promise**!_ )

“Hey are you alright?”

Tsuna nearly trips at the voice and stares warily at a girl in one of the private school uniforms that Tsuna’s seen in the neighbourhood. He doesn’t quite know how to react to her staring, usually when people stare at him they mean to jeer or throw paper balls at him. So Tsuna just looks back at the ground and the patterns of stone tiles beneath his feet and starts counting them in his head.

“Hey, did you hear me? I was talking to you, you know!”

This time Tsuna just blinks in disbelief.

“Really?”

The girl doesn’t look impressed.

“Ah. Sorry!” Tsuna bows his head. “It’s just… I’m pretty infamous around here and people don’t usually like to talk to me…” unless they’re dead, “…so I wasn’t sure if you were actually… um. Sorry! I didn’t mean to be rude.”

He can’t help but peek over to the side and shiver when he sees the crowd of ghosts muttering back and forth at the corner. Waiting for him. The girl makes a noise with her throat that makes Tsuna jump and look back at her in guilt.

If anything, Tsuna expects the girl to just nod and continue on with her day. Tsuna is being pretty rude and avoidant. But no. Her face just lights up with delight as she throws her arms around him and exclaims, “So you can see them too?! That’s great!”

“H-huh?!” Tsuna stills, finding the embrace of another human being alien unless they’re Nana.

“Haru is so glad to find someone who can _see_. This one’s name is Haru Miura. What’s your name?”

Tsuna opens and closes his mouth several times, his voice suffering from a meltdown of overwhelming emotions. What is he feeling right now? Is it possible? Is there really someone just like him? Someone else who can see, like him?

Miura pokes him insistently in the forehead until he splutters out, “Ah, it’s T-Tsuna… T-Tsuna Sawada. Ah, but how did y-you… know that I-I c-can, w-well… that I-I c-can…”

Her smile, so bright when she embraced him, washes away as she stares off into the distance. At the other ghosts and monsters lurking up and down the street. The change is so dramatic that Tsuna wants to hit himself for bringing up the question. How could he? If Haru is anything like him then…

“I’m sorry!” Tsuna bows again, “I shouldn’t have asked! You must have been bullied as well and I guess you must have noticed that I was looking at _them_ when I was running, right?”

“Ah, yes,” Haru sniffs. “They used to tease Haru too…” and Tsuna wants to comfort her somehow but he doesn’t have the words. Why does he have to be so useless when it comes to this? Life should come with a manual for these situations but even then, Tsuna suspects that he’d be dead last in that subject.

Just when Tsuna is about to awkwardly offer to treat her, she smiles again, even brighter than before.

“Ah, but that’s all fine and over! Haru has you to talk to now, Tsuna! This will be our little secret,” she winks and Tsuna can’t help but agree.

Because in that moment, suddenly seeing spirits is something… normal. At least for him and Haru.

-

Tsuna’s classmates won’t stop giving him scathing glances. Tsuna doesn’t really blame them. He’d probably be annoyed too if some random kid in his class kept talking to himself and crying out in random bursts of pain. Courtesy of the invisible tutor-that-was-probably-a-reaper sitting on said student’s desk, of course. Not that anybody knew that part.

“Could you stop shooting me every time I get something wrong in class?” Tsuna hisses to Reborn.

“Nope,” says Reborn, lying back on the comfortable seat Tsuna made with his school jacket. “Negative reinforcement with positive reinforcement helps the mind.”

“ _Since when have you ever used positive reinforcement, you sadist—_ ”

“When I don’t shoot you.”

“Urgh,” Tsuna slams his forehead against his textbook. “Now everyone’s going to think I’m creepier than usual.”

“You can have your future guardians smite them for you, now pay attention to what Sasagawa-sensei is saying, idiot!”

“Ow, ow, alright!” Tsuna grumbles, turning back towards what his teacher is writing on the board. He glances at the door and squeaks when he sees Hibari-sempai walking past in the hallway. Probably psychic to any forms of misconduct, Hibari-sempai pauses outside the door window and glares at Tsuna until Tsuna returns to staring at Sasagawa-sensei’s lecture.

Honestly, every time something goes wrong, Hibari is always there to scare a student into submission.

-

The bell rings for lunch and Tsuna tunes out the usual whispers of ‘that no-good Tsuna!’ and ‘Did you hear him speak out in class? So weird!’ He focuses on putting his notes into his bad instead.

Familiar laughter dances above him and he can’t help but smile a little when he sees Yamamoto laughing with his baseball teammates. Even if Yamamoto calls Tsuna Dame as well, he’s nicer than the other students. At least he says hello to Tsuna occasionally, even if the smile he gives to Tsuna is the same shallow one that he gives to everyone else.

With a light hum, Tsuna offers Reborn his shoulder and the baby hops on, nodding his approval, “I see you’ve accepted your place, idiot student of mine.”

Tsuna rolls his eyes, “You wish. Ow! I mean, I’ll go along with it for now but that doesn’t mean I accept what you’re training me for!”

“Hmph! I’m surprised you’re able to learn in this school at all with your phobia,” Reborn comments. “You’ve got stronger nerves than I thought. Good job.”

“What?” Tsuna frowns as he races up the stairs. The floors are surprisingly pristine today. Best to avoid eye contact with all potential bullies and any ghostly monsters that might have floated into the school. “Well yeah. School is usually alright for me. I never really run into any spirits here. But you never know…”

“I see…” Reborn says in an odd tone.

“No running in the halls,” a voice hisses by Tsuna’s ear and Tsuna yelps as he stumbles against the water fountain.

Hibari is as menacing as ever, stalking down the hallways with his tonfas and just breathing out killing intent like a Cerberus from hell. Tsuna brings his hands up in prayer.

“Ah! Sorry, Hibari, please don’t bite me! I didn’t mean to do it, I swear! It’s just the bullies and—whoa!” Tsuna dodges one of Hibari’s attacks and ducks towards the garbage cans, ignoring other students’ whispers of ‘Dame-Tsuna is screwing around again!’

Sometimes Tsuna wonders why he bothers dodging anymore. Everyone knows that Hibari won’t stop until ‘appropriate’ punishment is given out. He slows his movements and gives the appropriate response when one of the tonfas hits his shoulder (a lot of terror and pain.)

Tsuna doesn’t even bother ducking before Hibari grabs Tsuna’s shirt and growls out, “Don’t misbehave again, herbivore or I’ll bite you to death.”

“Yes, okay, I promise I won’t run in the halls again—!”

The grip tightens.

“—and I’ll pay attention in class!”

Hibari lowers his grip on Tsuna’s shirt and glances at Tsuna’s shoulder where Reborn sits before he narrows his eyes and stalks away.

Tsuna just leans his head back against the wall, tries to shut himself off from the snickers of his schoolmates before he attempts to stand up again.

“You don’t seem to have any friends, Dame-Tsuna,” Reborn finally speaks up. “Loner or shunned?”

“I hope that’s a rhetorical question.”

“Maybe you should stop getting caught by that butcher in public. Other mortals might feel sorrier for you and approach you then,” Reborn says in a faux cheerfulness that makes Tsuna groan.

“I can’t avoid Hibari. No one can. He’s always there whenever a student misbehaves and he gives me a headache whenever he’s around. Does he always want to kill someone?! They call him the curse of Namimori High I think…”

“Some interesting presences at your school here, Dame-Tsuna. Perhaps you should talk more with them.”

Tsuna’s nose scrunches up in confusion. “Are you trying to get me to make friends with Hibari or something, Reborn? Because that’s not happening,” Tsuna shivers, “Ever.”

Hibari is terrifying. Why would Reborn even make such a suggestion? And what’s with all these questions, it’s almost like… oh.

“Look, I’m fine Reborn,” Tsuna says with a quiet smile. “I do have one friend.”

“Really?” Reborn perks up.

“She doesn’t go to Namimori. She’s a private school student. But she’s really nice! You should make yourself visible to her, she loves cute things, uh, not that you’re cute—”

“Oh?” Suddenly killing intent from the dangerous baby seems to suffocate the building. “Is that what you think, Dame-Tsuna?”

“I—I mean, she’d love you! You’re totally adorable! And um. Charming! Yeah!”

“Damn right,” and Tsuna breathes out with thanks for his life as Reborn puts down his pistol.

He almost laughs right there, in the middle of the hall, at how strange his life has become (and it’s been absurd enough already!) More stares turn his way as he tries to contain his hysterics but he stops when Reborn tells him to shut up and get to eating—“I want to try some homemade bento.”

-

“You eat here alone every day?” Reborn asks.

Leaning against the fence and watching the baseball team playing around on the ground below, Tsuna nods. “Yeah. It’s nice. No one’s allowed up here but Sasagawa-sensei likes me and lets me eat here.”

She also suspects that Tsuna is being bullied. Which he has denied. Several times. Even if it’s true. But it’s nice to have a homeroom teacher that cares.

“…and you don’t have to deal with other entities here,” Reborn steals Tsuna’s riceball. “Smart. You’re practically a Vongola already.”

“Stop it!” Tsuna swipes the last riceball before Reborn can take it. “I’m not like you or dad! I’m not…”

“Not what? Alone? Isolated? Those are the inevitable requirements of a Vongola exorcist. You shouldn’t get attached to other humans. You are different by your blood alone. By the nature of your occupation, you will always be separated from other mortals, only connected to those who share your fate,” he lets another red flame dance up before Tsuna’s face. “You were born to be alone.”

There’s a hush in his chest, the way the clouds slowly cover up the sun and casts light shadows on the world. Except those clouds were always there and he’s always seen them, always known that they would brush away the bright view of his world. But he was happy to pretend otherwise, happy to look only at the sun, even if it blinded him, and hope…

“No,” is that his voice? “No, that can’t be true.”

Reborn gives a long sigh, “Dame-Tsuna, you know it is.”

“But I’ve met someone else who sees them! And she’s not Vongola at all!”

Reborn raises an eyebrow. “Well then… there are other groups that can see the world in-between but their blood is not touched by Reapers. They are not as in tune with the dead as you are. They only see shadows. Wisps.”

“Still!” the riceball drops from his hands, “Haru is my friend and she wouldn’t abandon me, she wouldn’t think that I’m…”

_Liarfreakliarliar—_

Reborn studies Tsuna for a moment, looks at the sweat Tsuna can feel dripping from his forehead. “I want to meet her.”

Tsuna breaks into a smile that makes Reborn still. “Thank you! You won’t regret it, Reborn.”

The reaper, oddly, makes no reply but Tsuna concentrates on how tasty the vegetables are in his bento instead and thinks of how he’ll apologize to his mum. Things will be fine, they always are after he talks to Haru.

-

Ghosts crowd outside of the school gates like always and Tsuna thinks he spots Hibari glaring at students who run too quickly into the street, as he sits up in the trees with his Hibird. But Tsuna is too excited to care for the spirits that seem to quiet when he rushes past them. Reborn just stays on top of Tsuna’s head, tightening his grip on Tsuna’s hair when they get to the park.

Several mothers are there with their children and they give Tsuna dirty glances when Tsuna shouts, “Haru!” with a big smile. Probably because of Tsuna’s unkempt appearance. A lot of people in this neighbourhood like to glare at him. It’s probably a sport by now.

Haru is standing on the swings, standing as if on lookout and jumps off with a flourish when she sees him. “Tsuna-kun!” she throws his arms around him and spins them both round.

Tsuna laughs when they stop, “How are you doing?”

“Oh, you know, just hanging around as usual,” she points to the swings. She pauses, “Is that a baby on your head?”

“Um…”

“Ahhhh, he’s so cute!” she gushes, moving her hands up before she merely waves her hands in front of Reborn and coos. “Hi there, my name is Haru!”

Tsuna can’t see Reborn’s expression but he feels the reaper still before he says, “Ciaossu. I am Reborn. The world’s number one hitman and exorcist.”

Haru freezes for a moment before she gives a frightening smile in Tsuna’s direction.

“Tsuna…?”

Suddenly Tsuna wishes he was far, far away. Maybe in Singapore. It’s nice there, lots of fish. “Uh… yes?”

“ _Just what have you been teaching this precious, angel child?!_ ”

“Ah, nothing, he’s not—”

“Children are precious souls! Like untouched snow! They have to be protected, they can’t _know_ what we see, they have to stay innocent at costs—”

A shot rings out and Tsuna automatically pushes Haru out of the way. He falls on his knees, hissing at the pain and seeing that mothers rushing their children away from the park. Rushing away from Reborn’s shot. Tsuna stumbles back up while Haru’s breath seems to hitch at the sight of Tsuna’s blood.

“What are you doing, Reborn?! You can shoot me all you want just leave Haru out of this!”

“Innocent at all costs, hm?” the reaper ignores him, narrowing his eyes at Haru from his spot on top of the slide. “Tell me, spirit, how long did you think you could keep up this guise with Tsuna?”

It’s as if Tsuna has stepped into a different region, where everyone speaks Japanese but with an unrecognizable accent. He has to shake his head, wants to curl in on himself, but no, Haru needs him. Reborn is, Reborn is—

“Wrong, y-you’re wrong. Haru’s not… she’s not a spirit!”

She can’t be. She’s normal. She looks normal at least. He doesn’t get any weird vibes around her. She’s always so happy around him, so happy that her joy seems infectious. When he’s with her, the spirits don’t come close. They never do, in this park.

( _But why not, Dame-Tsuna?)_

“Haru… Haru tell him that he’s wrong…”

But she’s not listening to him. She’s moving backwards against the ground, face as pale as those that haunt him every day. Suddenly Tsuna can see bits of the gravel through her dress, bits of the swings beyond her face. But still, Haru doesn’t look at him. She looks, instead, at Reborn, with a mixture of dark bitterness that Tsuna has never seen in her before.

“So you’re a _Reaper_ then,” she says and Tsuna feels like someone has thrown his heart into a grinder.

No. No, please.

“Not a child like you,” Reborn replies with disdain. His aim doesn’t waver, why won’t it waver, why can’t he just _put the gun down_ — “What family has sent you here to manipulate Tsuna?”

Please stop.

“Family?” Haru’s smile twists into something alien. “What are you talking about? Tsuna-kun is _Haru’s_ friend. He sees Haru. That’s all there is to it.”

Reborn’s hat casts shadows over his face. “If that’s all then…” his shadow begins to grow once more, into the adult form from before and Tsuna has to scream out, “ _Stop!_ ” dashing right in front of the bullet and feeling it’s fiery breath just seconds before his forehead before he’s pulled down once again.

The swings behind them become engulfed in black flames from the bullet. Tsuna tries to remember how to breathe as Haru and Reborn hover above him. He tries to count to twenty. Tries to think of his mum. Of Haru (but oh, he can’t breathe again because Haru is not Haru, or is she still Haru, how can she be—) and there’s something wailing and it won’t shut up.

Oh. It’s him.

-

When Tsuna was five, he got lost in the supermarket.

There were a surprising number of strange things crawling around the supermarket that would try to attack Tsuna if he talked to them or touched them. Strange giant centipedes. Dogs with limbs sewn to their heads. Cats that had twisted eyes. Tsuna learned quickly as a child to walk with his eyes closed and stick close to Mama, holding her hand. Mama was used to it and chatted happily to Tsuna about what she would cook for dinner or about the new flowers she wanted to purchase.

But she wasn’t here now and everywhere Tsuna looked he saw more and more monsters. All he could do was squeak and bump into stands of soup cans and then rush into the next aisle as these displays nearly fell on top of him. He could do nothing but curl up and close his eyes, hoping Mama would find him.

“There, there, dear, don’t let those silly creatures bother you,” a hand touched his shoulder.

Tsuna sniffed and peered cautiously up from his snot-covered sleeves. He almost expected it to be one of the centipede like things trying to crawl into the opening of his shirt from his collar but it was a kindly smile. An older woman who smelled like Mama, like lilies and the spices from the kitchen. She laughed softly and Tsuna was reminded of the man who was supposed to be called Papa, who visited with a nice old man a few days ago.

He couldn’t help but shiver at the mention of those creatures again. “I… I can’t… they look at me and…”

She put her arms around him and nodded. “I understand. You don’t have to look if you don’t want to. I’ll take care of you.”

Tsuna couldn’t help but remember that he wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers. Papa told him that every day when he visited.

“Just close your eyes, dear, and I’ll take you to your mama,” she coaxed him up and at the mention of Mama, Tsuna decided to trust this lady.

He closed his eyes and followed the lady’s tugging. He felt lost, like a rowboat without oars being tugged by a nameless stranger that claimed to know the way home. All around him, Tsuna could feel the monsters scuttling back and forth in the supermarket, watching him, waiting for a chance to attack if he should make any move that showed he could see them.

His Mama’s panicked voice broke through his thoughts. “Tsuna! Tsuna, there you are! Oh my baby, didn’t I tell you not to leave Mama’s sight?”

Tsuna opened his eyes and there she was. He almost began crying out of joy.

“I was lost but this nice Granny helped me!”

Mama reluctantly let go of him and asked, “Which Granny, Tsuna? We should thank her…”

“The one right here,” Tsuna pointed to the lady still holding his hand.

“Hm?” Mama blinked, “But Tsuna, honey, there’s no one there.”

He had run away then too, straight into Mama’s arms and refused to look at that nice Granny again.

-

(He was always running away, wasn’t he?)

He hates himself. How could he never notice? He’s always been able to ‘feel’ things about the emotions of ghosts. Wasn’t it weird to feel Haru’s happiness all the time? No wonder people in the park stare at him… he’s been talking to nothing… there’s _nothing_ there…

“Tsuna… Tsuna, please talk to me…”

“No…” he curls in on himself, “No, just leave me alone…”

“Don’t be an idiot, Dame-Tsuna, we need to check your wounds,” Reborn orders and it’s only the steel authority in his voice that makes Tsuna sit up. The swings are still burning. But the flames don’t spread anywhere else. They just hiss like snakes, seem to lash out towards Haru but Haru, thankfully, floats out of their range.

He doesn’t even notice when Reborn is done poking at his scabs and bleeding knees until he blinks and he realizes that Haru has been trying to talk to him for the last few minutes.

“Tsuna, Haru is sorry. Haru didn’t want you to find out like this…” she’s saying and there might be explanations there. Maybe. More apologies too but Tsuna can’t seem to hear them.

He just… he just stares at her. Watches the way the green trees fade in and out through her skin, the way lights seem to pass through her eyes and Tsuna wonders why he never noticed till now. Did Haru do something, has he always been so stupid…?

“…Why…” he begins and Haru quiets, “…why didn’t you… just _tell_ me…?”

She doesn’t say anything.

“I… I told you all my secrets… you… you know how other ghosts are, I can’t… I don’t…”

“Exactly!” Haru points wildly at him and this time, Reborn jumps in between them, gun cocked in her direction again. “There! See! Haru _couldn’t_ tell you then!”

“Lulling him into a false sense of security?” Reborn says sweetly.

“No, Tsuna please—”

Reborn edges closer to her.

“Or maybe you intended to leech off his vitality…”

“Haru would never… well there was that one time… b-but, honestly, Haru would never hurt Tsuna! Tsuna believes Haru, doesn’t he?”

She is suddenly in front of him with such hopeful and eerily bright eyes that Tsuna can’t help but remember every ghost he has ever met, every encounter, all the bad, all the times he was shut in his room…

Another click. Killing intent filling the park with heightened intensity.

“I told you stay away from him.”

“ _No!_ ” she reaches for Tsuna’s hand but Tsuna flinches and her face just… breaks. There’s no other way for Tsuna to describe it.

He sees the blood raining down her face. The hole in her forehead, the purple marks around her neck as her smile is stitched up with that dark bitterness from before.

“So it’s like this then… huh?”

Tsuna suddenly wants to run again. Back to his house. Back in time. To yesterday.

Reborn shoots and Haru just blinks out of sight and reappears again behind Tsuna, grabbing his arm. “No!” she seems to scowl. “No, you can’t take Haru away. Haru doesn’t want to go!”

“Haru, stop, what are you doing?!”

Reborn pauses, his shadow growing into that of an adult’s again. Tsuna swears he can see flickers of Reborn’s small suit twist wildly, as if there is another person within the reaper, trying to claw its way out of this baby’s body. But Reborn just glares at Haru, not quite lowering his gun, but not quite ready to shoot either.

“The bullet won’t hurt Tsuna,” Reborn says and Haru’s hold on Tsuna seems to sink into his skin. “He is not like you, spirit. He devours flames.”

“No way…” Haru starts to laugh bitterly. “No, that’s not true. He’s not a reaper. He’s not one of you...” her grip is so cold that Tsuna thinks his blood will freeze, before he feels the tremble of his fingers, “…He’s Haru’s friend…”

Tsuna stops shaking.

“Sh-shoot Haru if you want, but you won’t dare hurt Tsuna, Haru knows this!” she stutters, looking like the same girl he first met who stuttered excitedly over cake (which she never ate either, but kept in a box, saying she would eat tomorrow.)

She’s translucent in the daylight but her features are the same. Genuine. She’s been protecting so much happiness that Tsuna didn’t see it till now, how bitter she is. How painful. He sees the bruises, the bullet hole. The blood. He sees her still so cheerful and patient for putting up with someone as useless as Tsuna for the past eight months. Never attacking him. Always here in the park, waiting, keeping the ghosts away so Tsuna wouldn’t be afraid.

Oh Haru…

“…Wait…” someone says, soft yet unwavering. And it’s not until Reborn lowers his gun just half an inch that Tsuna realizes that it’s him. He’s saying this. He’s the one with a gentle touch on Haru’s iron grip and meeting her quivering (no longer as bright) eyes.

“…Tsuna,” Reborn warns.

“No Reborn! D-Don’t… Don’t s-shoot,” he says, turning so that he has a hand on Haru’s shoulder. He doesn’t look away this time. “H-Haru… H-Haru I’m so… so sorry…”

Haru lets go of him.

“S-Sorry… But… but why are you…?”

“You’ve been waiting here, all this time. That must have been…” he looks at the blood on her face, the bullet wound and wishes he could have met her _sooner_ , “…lonely… so…” he thinks he can see it now, a girl watching others pass through her, “lonely.”

“Dame-Tsuna,” Reborn growls, “don’t—”

But that’s when Haru bursts out into tears. Face crinkling up into folds of bitterness and grief and just pure… relief. She clings to him, wailing in the way people do when they want to articulate their pain but can’t and Tsuna feels as useless as ever, unable to comfort her save for a few awkward pats and useless wishes of _if only_.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m so sorry,” he says again. Over and over.

Haru wipes her face but there are no tears. Ghosts can’t really make tears, can they? Only imitate what they used to know. Even still, she smiles. And Tsuna feels more useless all over again.

“What are you crying for, Dame-Tsuna?” Reborn speaks from above them and Tsuna glares up at him.

“Stop it! Leave her alone, she’s just—”

“Lonely? Seeking warmth? Open your eyes, Dame-Tsuna… all ghosts start like her. They look as human as they died, at first, until they’re only left with their regrets. Day after day, they’ll brood and brood, remember and grow bitterer until they morph into those dark spirits that chase you every day. Even someone like her will succumb to dark thoughts if she lacks the will. She can’t stay, Tsunayoshi.”

“ _No,_ Haru’s different!” she can cry (or at least feel it) and she can laugh and she is—

“She’s not. As a Vongola, you need to exorcise her or subjugate her—”

Tsuna wants to laugh. Exorcise? Like what Reborn did before to those spirits? He can’t possibly do something like that!

“Wake up, Tsuna—”

A rock nearly hits Reborn but the Reaper easily deflects it with another bullet with his Chameleon-gun. He sends out a torrent of firepower towards Haru but Haru just reappears directly before Tsuna and shouts, “ _You_ wake up, Reaper! You’re just a bully! Tsuna is right, Haru would never hurt him like those other things—”

“You already have.”

Haru nearly goes entirely transparent while Tsuna shakes his head frantically.

“N-no, she hasn’t—”

“Look at your arm,” Reborn says coolly. “And maybe your back from where she hugged you.”

Tsuna quickly rolls up his sleeves ready to prove Reborn wrong but stops when he sees the black hand prints and red scabs from Haru’s fingerprints. He’s seen this before when other ghosts would grab him but he never associated it with Haru before… he’s always been grabbed before and after he meets her except for today… Reborn was with him all day, protecting him…

“It… it doesn’t matter,” he’s used to this. Haru didn’t mean it. They can still—

“Haru...” a quivering voice whispers, “…Haru did this… to Tsuna-kun…?”

Tsuna turns back to where Haru has shrank away, to the burning swings (Why? Why are they still burning?)

“It’s fine, I can—”

“ _No!_ ” Haru shouts and the wind seems to whip around her as that bitterness returns to her face. “Haru won’t listen to Tsuna’s excuses. Haru won’t be like _them._ ” She steps closer to the fire. “Haru is different… and Haru is… Haru is the one who should be sorry!”

“Wait, don’t!”

She steps under the burning swings and reaches out with both arms, touching the coiled black flames that slither up to meet her from the railings.

And she burns.

“ _HARU!_ ” Tsuna tries to jump in after her, tries to pull her away but strong arms hold him back and Tsuna can feel Reborn’s adult form caging him away from Haru with his hold. Please, he wants to say, stop. And no. No don’t. But he’s said this so many times that these words seem to have lost their power and he can only…

Her twists out, swallowed by the black flames but she doesn’t scream like the other ghosts did. She just turns towards him and gives one last (terrible) smile.

“Sorry Tsuna,” no, don’t say that, please, no, no, no, “Haru just… Haru just wanted to be friends.”

She’s fading. Tsuna can barely feel her presence in his soul anymore. The black flames are happy to feast, fading finally with their awarded prey and Tsuna screams.

-

Orange. Orange warmth, if warmth could be described as a colour at all. If Haru’s laughter and smiles, if the way her happiness felt around him had a colour…

It would be Orange.

-

Tsuna awakes, tasting gravel on his lips. When he rolls over, the park is empty save for Reborn sitting pensively by Tsuna’s face.

Haru is gone.

Tsuna closes his eyes.

“Stop crying,” Reborn says.

How? How can he…? When he…?

“I killed her,” he whispers. If he had never brought Reborn here… if he had just noticed she was a ghost sooner, maybe…

“She was already dead,” Reborn points out and Tsuna buries his face under his arm.

“This is cruel.”

“Oh?” he hears Reborn shuffle closer to him.

“Is this what my father and you do? Kill them? When they’re so…”

“So what? _Human_?”

“Shut up!” Tsuna cries out. “You saw her! She felt things. She cried. She laughed!”

“And what about the things that chase you? Are _they_ still human?”

Tsuna has no answer.

Reborn stands up and kicks Tsuna gently in the cheek. “Get up. You still have much to learn. We’ll start training tomorrow.”

For a moment, Tsuna doesn’t move. But then he slowly gets up and mechanically grabs his fallen bag and tries not to think of boxed cake and laughter in the park. She’s gone and from the looks of things… only Tsuna and Reborn will remember her last moments. He wipes his face again before pausing to let Reborn hop onto his shoulder.

Reborn doesn’t.

If anything, the Reaper has been looking at him with an odd expression ever since he woke.

“Still crying, huh,” Reborn murmurs with a shake of his head and Tsuna feels a flash of anger. How dare he? How can Tsuna _not_ cry when Haru is… is…

Well, Reborn isn’t quite human, is he?

Tsuna just shrugs.

“…I don’t want to do this,” he says.

“… _Excuse me?_ ”

Tsuna winces but says, “I can’t… be an exorcist. Not… Not if it means this… I _killed_ her, Reborn! She’ll never…”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“I’m not—”

“You saved her.”

“…What?”

“Those orange flames… those were _yours._ You didn’t exterminate her, you purified her.”

“T-Then, wh-where is she?” The park is still empty. No one on the slide or the swings. No one by the trees or by the parked cars on the street.

Reborn just hops on Tsuna’s head and kicks him to go forward.

“Who knows? We just use our flames, Tiny-Tsuna. We don’t ask who goes where.”

“B-but…!”

Reborn yanks at Tsuna’s hair, prompting a loud yelp, “She’s fine, Dame-Tsuna.”

“B-but you s-said…”

“She’s _fine_ ,” Reborn says. “You saved her. That’s all you need to know.”

Tsuna can’t help it. He starts to cry again and this time, Reborn doesn’t comment. He just pulls out a handkerchief and throws it down at Tsuna’s nose.

 _Good job,_ Reborn doesn’t say and Tsuna doesn’t get to hear it.

-

“By the way, Dame-Tsuna, I’m still going to train you to be a top-rate exorcist, whether you like it or not. So expect to be up at 5 am tomorrow.”

“Hiaaa?! No, just, _no,_ get out of my room!”

BANG!

-

**Night. A confidential correspondence between the Seven.**

-It’s happened. I saw them again. The Orange Flames.

-Holy shit! You can’t be serious, kora! The last time anyone saw those was with—

-I know.

-Well damn. This changes everything. And it’s that Vongola kid? Shit, what’s our next move?

-[dark laughter] What do you expect? We can’t let the Vongola know. I’ll keep training him… but with the methods of the First instead. Tsunayoshi is one of _ours_ , after all…


	3. Alone Boy: Child and Monster

** Episode 3: Child and Monster **

Haru stands before him, drenched in crimson. She’s smiling again but it’s not the smile that Tsuna knows so well. “Come here,” she tells him and Tsuna is trying but he’s tripping over a pile of bones, skulls are so terribly slippery. Why can’t he reach…?

He falls over a ribcage and coughs up dead dust.

“Hey, what are you doing now, desu?” Haru giggles around him. He can barely see her, the dust keeps stinging at his eyes and…

He coughs, little wisps of orange leaking out from his blood and he tries to wipe it off on his sleeve but this Haru suddenly grips him with that terrible grasp again, looking hungrily at the crimson and the amber wisps.

“Please, Tsuna. Just a little… let Haru have a little and then she will go get cake with you, okay…”

No, part of him wants to shrink away. But this is Haru. She’s his only friend. She wouldn’t hurt him and she’s so cold, surely she wants to be warm, right…?

Pale, Haru’s grin suddenly reminds Tsuna of a starving animal’s as she leans down with her sharp teeth and—

Orange everywhere. The sound of her laughter. The twinkle in her eyes when she spun him around in a hug. Her fierce protectiveness pushes him away from the other Haru, from sharp teeth, burns the other’s touch from him, and he can’t help but close his eyes and bask in the warm feeling, forgetting all else.

For… get?

No. Wait—

-

Tsuna gasps, drenched in sweat, tangled up in his blankets with a foul taste in his mouth. When he tries to get up, he realizes that he’s in an awkward head-first position, kissing the ground from his bed, just in the midst of falling. With a yelp, Tsuna does just that and hisses at the pain of soon-to-be bruises all over his joints.

He shivers, pulling the blankets tighter around himself. _Please, Tsuna, let Haru have a little warmth_ , the dream continues to whisper and Tsuna wishes there was a place to hide from one’s thoughts. _I’m sorry_ , Tsuna wants to say, but he knows it’s useless. He’s always doing that. It never changes anything.

“Then why bother saying it?”

“Gah!” Tsuna nearly dives under his bed when he sees eerie black eyes staring back. Inches from his face. The moonlight from his blinds seem to form wispy shapes in Reborn’s eyes, another world entirely. “D-don’t do that!”

“Do what?” the shadows seem to quiver with Reborn’s voice.

“S-sneak up on m-me!”

“Idiot. If you were more observant after waking from your dream, you’d realize that I was sitting by your bedside the whole night. And before you ask, no, I didn’t read your pathetic little mind. You spoke out loud.”

There are so many things Tsuna wants to address in those statements alone like ‘You were watching me sleep, why?!’ and ‘Stop calling people pathetic! Even if it’s true!’ and ‘You weren’t there when I first woke up, I’m _pretty sure_ about that!’ but Tsuna settles for just groaning. He doesn’t know how he feels about his so-called tutor anymore but if his feelings could be thrown into a blender, the bad and the good, and then served up in soup, perhaps that would be it.

But Tsuna has to talk to somebody ( _but why now, Dame-Tsuna, you never have before_.) And Reborn is the only one around to hear it, even if he doesn’t give a damn.

“I…” Tsuna speaks, because he feels like Reborn wants him to break the silence first, “I’m always running away.”

Hot tears rush up to his eyes, threatening to come out but Tsuna fights them back. No. He has to say this.

“I’m so useless all the time, Reborn… I couldn’t help Haru… I know what you said but I don’t really _believe_ it. How did I help her at all? I didn’t know what I was doing. I never do. I just… run and exist. That’s it. I know the Vongola hired you to make me some sort of exorcist but I don’t think I can do that.”

“Don’t be foolish,” Reborn says lightly but Tsuna can’t help but shiver at Reborn’s tone nonetheless, Reborn just feels different compared to spirits and humans. “I’m the afterlife’s number one hitman. There’s nothing I cannot accomplish, even with a weakling like you.”

Tsuna feels like ripping his hair out and just burrowing back into his bed, pretending the world doesn’t exist. That’s not the point, he doesn’t say. Of course Reborn isn’t going to indulge in Tsuna’s sad little problems. They must seem so insignificant to a reaper.

Reborn is only here to make Tsuna an exorcist and protect him from malicious spirits, nothing more. This creature doesn’t care for him personally and even if he was human, why would he? Tsuna is nothing.

No, Tsuna won’t tell him about the dream with Haru then. It’s just that. A dream. And—

“Ow!”

“Enough of your cyclic whining. If you’re up then we might as well begin your training. Now drop down and give me fifty push-ups.”

“Huh?! What does _that_ have to do with ghosts?!”

Another shot. Tsuna will miss the loose sleeves of his pyjamas, he really will.

“Fool. High stamina is key in all disciplines. With all the running away that you do, this should be child’s play.”

“Those are leg muscles not arm—”

“Exactly. Train those too. Leave nothing unfit.”

“But it’s two in the morn—ack! Okay, okay, I’m starting, I’m starting!” Tsuna practically embraces his floor before muttering, “Tyrant.”

Alas, Tsuna really needs to stop talking to himself now that he has an invisible tagalong with him.

-

His arms are going to fall off. Tsuna honestly can’t feel them as he looks up in exhaustion at the huge blackboard Reborn has somehow set up in his room (seriously, how?)

Just as Tsuna is about to nod off, he gets hit in the head with a piece of chalk. Tsuna is too tired to even shriek. Only look up like a traumatized rabbit in a cage.

“Now then…” Reborn smirks, “first order of business is to address your terrible lack of distinction between the dead and the living!”

Tsuna blinks. What now?

“You, Idiot-Tsuna,” Reborn’s chameleon morphs into a pointer that jabs Tsuna in the stomach, “have a terrible and frankly sad habit of speaking to the dead as if they are living… all because your brain apparently cannot tell the difference between both unless the spirit becomes malicious.”

Tsuna stares down at his lap, thinking of Haru and the Granny from the supermarket.

“They just… seem so…”

“Human,” Reborn snorts. “Yes. I know. But they’re not. This will get you killed and then the First’s bloodline will vanish and the Vongola will not allow that to happen. So before you learn _anything_ about the flames, I’ll be teaching you how to locate the dead.”

“I…” Tsuna leans closer, “How?”

Reborn’s shadow flickers between adult and child forms once again. He smiles and Tsuna is reminded of ghosts swimming in a river, too caught up in the current to swim out.

“Why… we beat it into you, of course.”

“Hieee?!”

Honestly, is this guy even qualified to teach people?

-

Reborn’s plan (and lecture) goes something like this:

“Yesterday was a reconnaissance of your skills and your first few tests as an exorcist.”

Tsuna blinks, wondering when Reborn had time to do any of that.

“Ow!”

“Be more observant,” Reborn wipes the chalk from his fingers, “of the living _and_ the dead… and those that exist in between. Your encounter with that ghost-friend of yours should have been a wake-up call to how blind you are. You’re so damn emphatic with these spirits and their feelings that you think they’re living people if they haven’t been too corrupted. We can’t have that, especially with the dangers wandering around your school.”

“Wh-what are you t-talking about?!” Tsuna tries to recall any scary things he’s seen in class lately besides the usual bullies and Hibari. He’s never seen anything supernatural there. School, besides home, has always been the safest place for him.

“There are spirits strong enough to be seen by regular mortals. There’s one at your school now… and a few other spirits that aren’t as strong but could pose a threat in the future,” Reborn looks down at his nails and begins, oddly enough, to paint them black. “I wanted to see if you could tell what they were.”

Tsuna feels cold inside. All those days in school… enduring all the stares, the jeers and ‘accidental’ trips down the stairs, thinking that at least this was better than being outside…

“…I wasn’t safe after all,” Tsuna feels the hollow burning at the back of his eyes. He’s probably the only kid in school who can see ghosts and he even fails at that. How has he even survived this long…? Imagine more creepy things clawing for his throat, making him scream in the middle of class…

Tsuna’s fingers still.

“Wait, if there are ghosts at my school then why haven’t they attacked me?” Tsuna frowns. “You… you tried to—” _kill, no, can’t kill what’s already dead,_ “—get rid of Haru as soon as you saw her because you said she was dangerous but she never attacked me! Why didn’t you… get rid of… the spirits at school too if they’re so dangerous to me?”

Reborn’s eyes are as eerie as before.

“What do you think, Dame-Tsuna?”

The cold feeling scratches at Tsuna’s throat, crawling down and sticking to the edges like creeping mould.

“I think…” his hands tremble, “that if you were really concerned about my safety… you would have exorcised all the supposed spirits at my school too… not just _Haru_ … I think, that you wanted to see what I would do, if I found out someone I… cared about… was a ghost.”

Tsuna looks back at Reborn again, wishing he could wretch the sickening cold from his body out for the Reaper baby to see. But Reborn just gives one of those enigmatic smiles and Tsuna wants to scream at him to _say something, give me a reason to trust you, please_ (but doesn’t he already…? Except Haru’s face burns in orange in his mind and he thinks that he _can’t_ —)

“That’s right,” Reborn’s soft voice interrupts his thoughts and Tsuna suddenly wants to be swallowed up by his blankets, never to wake. “I did want to see.”

The floor is shaking. No, his fingers are. His body. Tsuna has the urge to run away so that he’ll never have to look at this reaper again but where would he run? _I wasn’t safe after all_. _Can’t bring Haru back_. And there’s another voice, quiet and bubbling, whispering, _how could you, how could you, how—_

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you safe,” Reborn finishes.

Tsuna chokes a little.

“You’re two hundred years too late to question me about my methods,” Reborn stands up, suddenly menacing and cool in his tiny form. “Why did I leave the spirits at your educational institution be but burn your _Haru?_ Simple. Their proximity to you.”

“What—”

“Close your mouth, idiot,” Reborn hops down to tap at Tsuna’s chin with the hilt of his gun. Tsuna yelps, putting his hands up to his throat protectively. “Have you not noticed spirits and their obsession with your ‘warmth’? The closer they get to you, the more addicted they become, especially if they’re weak.”

 _Come closer to Auntie, little one, I’m so cold; just one hug please…_ speaks the memory of a woman with no eyes in his mind. Tsuna shivers. Yes, he’s always noticed.

Reborn just smirks and settles himself on Tsuna’s lap, probably smirking because he knows how much Tsuna wants to push him off right now.

“Your _Haru_ was weak. Shut up, Dame-Tsuna, she was already on the precipice of corruption before you were approached by her. She would have changed into one of the corrupted from the way she died, if not for her proximity to you. The change became delayed then, but would have come, if she had given in to her hunger.”

“But—”

Reborn pinches him. “She would have. It’s in their nature. All spirits are dangerous, Tsuna, and you know it.”

He thinks of the dream. The Haru that acted like all the other scary spirits that chase him outside and he just bites his lip. _It’s not true_ , goes unvoiced. Silent.

“Then what about…?”

“The two spirits I sensed at your school are different,” Reborn reads his mind. “One has not met you yet and therefore cannot grow hungry for your flame. The other… has an extraordinary sense of self-control that we can use for your training later on… so it’s safe, for now, to leave them be. We won’t deal with them until you’ve gained more experience. Besides, _I’m_ the world’s greatest hitman and reaper; do you think I’ll leave my charge defenseless in a place filled with spirits when I’m training him?”

For the first time, Tsuna feels like maybe he’s judged Reborn too quickly and harshly. His tutor is an annoying jerk but he’s done nothing but try to protect Tsuna from the things that chase him… Those things _are_ dangerous. They’re not like Haru at all and if it’s Tsuna’s job to make sure they pass on then surely…

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry.” To both Haru and Reborn. He’s never sure of how to do anything and he wishes he knew. But how can he? He’s always running and—

Reborn jumps up and flicks Tsuna in the forehead.

“Ow!”

“It’s the nature of the student to question their teachers. How else will you learn anything in life? I’m hundreds of years older than you. I _will_ place you in danger and I _will_ be merciless but I promise you that I will never risk your life in a scenario that I cannot control,” Reborn’s eyes gleam again as he smiles. “After all, you’re a valuable commodity for us.”

Tsuna, too choked up in emotions to notice, just nods.

-

Reborn doesn’t get time to explain how Tsuna’s new training will work besides the mandatory physical training every morning as Nana knocks on the door and lets them know that breakfast is ready.

She smiles too widely and avoids looking at Tsuna directly, just fusses over Tsuna’s hair and gets out his uniform and tie. Spends a little too long putting the tie on him with twitching fingers.

“I’m sorry, Mum!” Tsuna blurts out, when Nana insists on brushing his hair and nearly drops the comb again for the third time. Nana freezes, her smile painted so dry across her tired face. “I shouldn’t have said that yesterday. I’m sure you have some sort of reason or something. I shouldn’t… I just…”

“Ah, what in the world are you talking about?” Nana’s smile, if possible, seems to grow brighter with the heightened soprano of her voice and Tsuna wants to kick himself. If anything, he seems to have made things worse.

“Mum—”

“Ah! How about I cook your favourite for dinner tonight? Hamburgers or maybe some Udon?” she pushes him enthusiastically towards the hall.

Every other attempt at reconciliation is met with more avoiding eyes and much too large portions of rice. His Mum smiles brighter than ever but he can’t help but feel lonelier as she refuses to really talk to him.

 _I’m the worst,_ Tsuna thinks as he rushes out the door with his bento and a silent Reborn on his shoulder.

Maybe exorcists really are alone.

-

“Stop here, Dame-Tsuna,” Reborn finally speaks up as Tsuna tries to avoid staring at the creepy spirits poking around him. Reborn has been sending little bursts of black flames towards the persistent ones, despite Tsuna’s protests. Of course, Tsuna got a slap for each protest (students should question their teachers, what a hypocrite!) and Reborn muttered something about finding the ‘right training wheels’, whatever that means.

They’re standing near a dumpster about a block from Namimori. Most of the creepier ghosts have dispersed (either from Reborn’s glares or getting closer to the school… Tsuna’s not sure) so when Tsuna feels something sickening jolt at his heart, like having his fingers grinded under the wheels of a cement truck, he takes a step back.

“You want me to go over there, don’t you?” Tsuna sweats.

“Why, Tsuna, you read my mind,” Reborn drawls. “Onwards, steed!” he points at the source of Tsuna’s unease, the dumpster.

Tsuna gulps, each step heavy with the weight of intense pain. It’s not just the sensation of his fingers being crushed now but his arms and then his legs too and Tsuna almost can’t breathe because he doesn’t want to look into the dumpster, no, he can’t—

Reborn takes that decision away from him by shooting the lid of the dumpster off (how? Tsuna has stopped questioning him, honestly) and yanks at Tsuna’s hair to get Tsuna to peek in.

The stench of left out old sushi and ramen packages hits Tsuna first, along with rancid beer and he-really-doesn’t-want-to-know. His eyes water and Tsuna looks down at ripped garbage bags and spinning flies. The painful feeling at his heart heightens, like a loud sensor trying to jump up and down, screaming at him to look away but—

The feeling vanishes.

And Tsuna just sees a _child_ , a little boy maybe three or four or younger (oh god) curled up amongst the garbage bags as if they are pillows. And Tsuna lets out a sob.

“This… I can’t…” He needs help, Tsuna thinks, reaching out to the child but Reborn shoots and Tsuna yanks his hand away with a shout. “Hey, what are you doing?!”

“Look carefully,” Reborn orders and Tsuna turns back to look at the child who has woken.

The child who looks at Tsuna with the same hunger as other spirits have, as Haru ( _dream Haru, just dream Haru,_ his mind screams) has, and Tsuna _knows_.

He falls backwards, tumbling down on the cement, feeling the numb stings race through his nerves. But the child has crawled out and is racing towards him, teeth suddenly elongating, eyes becoming yellow and growing _horns_ of all things—

Reborn grabs the child by the scruff of his fluffy, broccoli-like hair and puts something that looks like a collar lit up in blue lights around the child’s neck, making him scream.

“ _What_ are you doing?!” Tsuna rushes over to pull the child away but Reborn slaps his hands away.

“ _This_ here,” Reborn gestures to the ghost child who seems torn between trying to gnaw off his new collar and gnaw at Tsuna, “is your new set of training wheels.”

“ _Eh?!_ ” and then, “What are you talking about?!”

“Exactly what I mean,” says Reborn, looking too pleased, “training wheels for you to practice sensing spirits.”

Tsuna stares at the little child (ghost… creature… thing) struggling like a fish on a hook from Reborn’s collar. The child’s face flickers between toddler to wild animal as fast as the beat of dragonfly wings. But each time Tsuna sees the hungry desperation in those eyes ( _please let me have warmth_ ), he finds he cannot look away.

“No.”

Reborn’s hat tilts down and Tsuna feels a chill. “No?”

“I… I can’t… it’s, well, he’s…” Haru’s face burns up in orange in his mind, “He’s a child.”

A shot shoots past Tsuna’s hair and he feels a streak of red slip down his chin.

“No. He’s a _spirit_. A thing that you should learn to take seriously lest he shoot you in the back. Now,” Reborn steps closer and Tsuna can’t help but cringe against the brick wall, “you’re going to stop questioning my methods and hopefully your little brain actually absorbs what I cram in there because it will _save your life_. First, _stop trusting spirits._ Second, _practice your sensing_.”

One of these days, Tsuna is just going to skip the screaming and get to the running. But today, he screams again when Reborn throws the ghost at him.

-

He finds himself literally roped with a miniature ghost tagalong. Literally. A thin ribbon of blue tied around his wrist, like a laughable version of the red string of fate, connects him to the collar of the vicious little child-ghost they’ve picked up. So far, Tsuna has struggled between sprinting and freezing up randomly in the halls, hoping that if the child-ghost just sniffs him than maybe he will go away. Eventually.

Except for the string that connects him, right, can’t forget about that.

He’s tried sprinting, but the child-ghost just chases after him as well, encouraged by his running, or Tsuna might run too fast and end up dragging a ghostly body behind him and then stop from more guilt (Reborn usually shoots at both of them when this happens.)

“Act like a mortal,” Reborn lectures from on top of Tsuna’s head. “Walk as you normally do.”

“Like that’s any better,” Tsuna grumbles. His normal walking is usually sprinting and cringing randomly behind corners. Most of the students and staff are used to it by now, side stepping Tsuna when needed. This _is_ normal for him.

For the tenth time, Reborn pinches his scalp. He’s _definitely_ a mind reader, that one.

Tsuna spares another nervous glance at the ghostly-child trailing behind him. For now, the ghost-child is just muttering and scowling to himself, biting at his fingers while glaring hatefully at Reborn and looking hungrily at Tsuna. Tsuna shivers, fighting back the urge to flinch away again, instead studying the ghost-child a little more.

He’s never seen a child dressed in a cow-print one-piece before. The horrid yellow colour of his pyjamas fades in and out with the bland walls of the school, half transparent and half opaque. The child flickers in and out between the images of twisted bull-like creature and toddler so often that Tsuna wonders if he doesn’t remember which he is anymore…

“He’s a Fluctuation right now.”

“Huh?” Tsuna blinks up as Reborn leans back against Tsuna’s hair.

“A Fluctuation. Flickering between the appearance of a humanoid spirit and one of the Corrupted. All it will take is one push and that thing will become Corrupted, another monster feeding on people’s vitality,” Reborn says, “perfect for your training.”

Tsuna’s eyes widen as Reborn smacks two markers against his cheek.

“You will mark your hands with a red mark and the minute of when you feel that thing become corrupted _every single time_. Likewise, you will put a blue mark and the time of when you feel that thing’s presence fade out. That’s when it fluctuates back into a humanoid spirit,” Reborn hops to Tsuna’s shoulder and tugs at the blue string. “Tomorrow I will move your training wheels a little farther away, and the next day farther, and you will practice stretching out your senses until you can tell me exactly where this thing is, right to the smallest millimeter.”

Admittedly, Tsuna’s jaw drops a little. He glances at the child-ghost that has put on the face of the bull-monster again, chewing on the string and getting electrocuted every time he does so.

“But—”

“Right to the smallest millimeter, Tsuna, or you might find yourself dangling off a rooftop when you try to sleep tonight.”

 _Can you really do that,_ Tsuna almost asks. But Reborn just smiles darkly at him and Tsuna believes that his tutor could probably do _anything_ if he felt like it.

-

Sasagawa-sensei’s words drip into Tsuna’s ears but Tsuna can barely feel them as his hands quiver every time he marks his wrists with another red or blue mark of ink. By now, he has veins and stitches of marks all the way up to his elbows, numbers and different times (nine o’clock, half past nine, quarter past nine…) all meshed together in an incomprehensible soup of murky purples with darts of red and blue sticking out.

He’s nearly dropped his markers over a dozen times by now and his math notebook is woefully empty of notes. The child-ghost gnawing at his ankle just keeps fluctuation but thankfully doesn’t actually _eat_ Tsuna’s leg because Reborn keeps flicking little flames at him. Still, each time the child-ghost gets burned, he gives Reborn such loathing growls that Tsuna wishes he could press himself against the glass and disappear.

The other students are staring at him oddly, snickering about another freaky thing that Odd-Tsuna is doing. Tsuna’s surprised they haven’t told Sasagawa-sensei about the marker all over his arms yet but Reborn has that gleam in his eyes that tells Tsuna perhaps the marker can’t be seen by adults… Maybe his classmates are just laughing at him for not writing his notes and seemingly writing nothing at all on his skin. Maybe.

The bell rings, making Tsuna almost fall from his seat. His leg jolts out, kicking the child-ghost over and Tsuna automatically catches the child-ghost in his hands, shouting. “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to kick you!”

Everyone in class gives him weird looks, either laughing or edging away from him for his ‘random’ outburst.

Tsuna just pulls the child-ghost closer to him, feeling the child tremble coolly, like earthquakes trapped in ice, against him. To them, the people walking away from him, he might as well be cradling the air.

Reborn kicks Tsuna in the shoulder. “Drop it.”

Tsuna blinks, “Huh?”

“The thing you’re holding. Drop it.”

Tsuna looks down at the trembling child-ghost, noticing how he has stopped fluctuating for now. Holding his breath as a human face. Such a small face. Staring at Tsuna with incredulity and something else…

“Ah, a-are you o-okay?”

 _He’s a ghost Tsuna,_ he can already hear Reborn begin to lecture, but Tsuna’s grown tired of hearing the child-ghosts scary growls and sad little whines. He can’t _not_ hold him, even for a little while. The child-ghost is just that… a child.

On the table, Reborn’s shadow flickers like a wild flame, eager to come out.

But as suddenly as the child-ghost becomes a human face, he switches back to the bull-monster’s again, biting at him, “ _I don’t need your help! Just give me warmth!_ ”

Tsuna nearly drops him then, in shock and fright, but part of him screams that he can’t drop a child of all things and so Tsuna holds on, even when the kid bites at his fingers.

“H-hey _stop that!_ ” Tsuna shouts, before Reborn can shoot.

When the child actually stops, Tsuna doesn’t know what to say. Luckily, the child-ghost seems more talkative and scowls, “Why should I?” His face goes back to a human’s again for half a moment, before settling back to the monster’s face.

For a moment, Tsuna doesn’t know what to say (he never does, how can he? He’s so useless, always running, why can’t he find the right thing to say—) but when he sees Reborn’s gun from the corner of his eye he quickly spills out, “B-because it’s r-rude!”

The child stares at him.

“Y-yeah! B-because it’s r-rude! You can’t just… just d-demand something like that, y-you have to ask! And if someone s-says no, then you have to leave it alone!”

What was it Haru used to say? Oh right, children are pure (or at least they should be) and if Haru can’t be here to help this child than Tsuna should and—

He can feel Reborn’s burning stare but he refuses to look back, only focusing on the perplexed child.

“The great Lambo wants it though,” the child says darkly, shattering Tsuna’s hopes. “But…” the child adds, “if it’s for this Onii-san then the great Lambo will not ask again today. Tomorrow, he will ask again. Now give me a reward!”

The silence in the classroom seems to ripple in disbelief.

“I…” _it actually worked?_ Tsuna can’t help but hug the child closer. “Sure! When I get home, we can watch cartoons… um, after I train-and-do-homework-please-don’t-kill-me-Reborn?”

His tutor’s gaze could melt the toughest of steel but something loosens.

“Are you going to forget _everything_ I told you about spirits, Dame-Tsuna?”

Tsuna closes his eyes, seeing the hungry Haru from his dreams and the bull-faced Lambo, both of them asking for warmth.

 _Spirits are dangerous._ Yes, he knows that. He’s an idiot and he knows that but—

“Can’t I just… try to do things my way for a bit? At least some of them? Lambo… he can’t hurt me, right? He’s stuck to this leash and you’re with me, Reborn. You said so yourself that you wouldn’t put me into any danger you couldn’t control. At least with Lambo, let me try to figure out where I stand with spirits… please?”

Reborn studies him for a moment before he turns and the shadows hide his eyes under his hat.

“That _Lambo_ is your training wheels; you can do with him what you wish when I do not require him for your training. But only until then, Dame-Tsuna.”

Maybe it’s the dream or the child or seeing Reborn in baby form, but Tsuna throws his arms around his tutor in a hug (where Reborn pushes Lambo away faster than a lion throws down an opponent in disdain) murmuring, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’ before he freezes in shock and rushes out of the classroom, dragging Lambo with him.

He doesn’t notice Reborn’s calculating smile as he leaves.

Nor does he see Sasagawa-sensei, a contemplative frown on her lips as she sees her student talking to nothing once again…

“Sawada Tsunayoshi… maybe he can help Ryohei-nii…”

-

“Lambo wants grape candy!”

“Um, I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Too much candy is bad for you,” plus Lambo probably can’t eat it anyways. Then again, Tsuna used to buy cakes for Haru and she never ate them either but she was happy to get them. Maybe it would be alright…?

Lambo frowns and just tugs at Tsuna’s sleeve.

They make an odd pair (well, they would if anyone else could see Lambo.) Tsuna holds Lambo against his chest as he goes to towards the rooftop stairs, promising Lambo that he’ll read him some manga later. Lambo keeps shifting faces back and forth in between his excited cheers. The bull-monster face still freaks Tsuna out but it’s not like Lambo can control it…

Tsuna’s face collides with something and before he knows it, he’s falling hard against the floor, turning his body so Lambo can’t feel it ( _but he’s a ghost Tsuna, he can’t feel anything anymore—_ )

“Ow…” he rubs his head and blinks at the other body on the floor across from him. “Y-Yamamoto-san?! Oh my god, are you alright?”

He goes over to help his classmate up but Lambo darts in front of him, teeth bared and fierce as lightning—

“How _dare you_ attack Tsuna!”

—oh no, “Lambo stop,” he hisses while looking up at Yamamoto and smiling shakily, “Wow, I’m so clumsy… I should really stop running around the corner… a ha ha…”

Yamamoto blinks at him for a few moments, his expression blank before recognition seems to seep in and he gives a false smile, “Ah, don’t worry about it, Sawada. I should have been able to catch myself anyways…”

“Oh, well,” Tsuna grabs onto Lambo’s collar and hides the child behind him, though it comes out as more him swiping at the air and being fidgety, “I don’t know about that… everyone falls down, right?”

Yamamoto’s clenches his jaw but he puts his hands behind his head.

“I should get to practice,” he grins but his eyes are elsewhere, to the windows, the pitch.

Tsuna blinks, “Oh, of course! Sorry for holding you up! Um, I hope practice goes well for you and that you don’t get too tired!”

Yamamoto narrows his eyes but his grin remains fixed in place, a contradiction of sunshine and empty ice. “Tired?”

“W-well, I just, not that you’re slacking off or anything, I just notice that you sleep a lot in class and you seem tired a lot so I hope that practice cheers you up instead of making you more tired, sorry?” Tsuna winces. There should be a new law passed down by the gods that Tsuna should walk around with tape over his mouth and not be allowed to speak.

Maybe he should make a tactical retreat.

Behind him, Lambo squirms some more. “I don’t like him! You should let me eat him and then you won’t have to worry about people bullying you anymore—”

“ _Stop, I’m not being bullied by him,_ ” Tsuna hisses quickly to the ghost before giving another shaky laugh to Yamamoto who (oddly enough) hasn’t left yet.

“You know…” Yamamoto says slowly.

“Uh,” Tsuna presses Lambo to his back, “yes?”

“…you’re a nice guy, huh, Sawada,” Yamamoto exclaims, as if he’s discovered a new favourite food.

“What—”

Quickly, Yamamoto ruffles Tsuna’s hair and grins, _really grins_ , before dashing off, “I’ll be fine! Later, Sawada!”

Tsuna stares at the void left by Yamamoto, his cheeks burning. “…Bye,” he whispers, and then, “Wait. Isn’t it too early for baseball practice? It’s only lunch!”

Yamamoto, Tsuna muses, must be really dedicated to baseball.

-

“Why didn’t you let me eat him?!” Lambo explodes when they get to the rooftop.

“Lambo you can’t just eat people!” Tsuna shushes him. He’s also pretty sure that ghosts, corrupted or not, can’t physically harm living beings unless they’re like Tsuna. Reborn hasn’t exactly explained how that works yet but from what Tsuna’s seen, if ghosts _could_ physically eat people, his neighbourhood would be empty by now.

Maybe it has something to do with the ‘warmth’ spirits are so obsessed with?

“Why not?! I’m hungry!”

“Because that’s not what nice kids do!”

“Well Lambo is _not_ a good boy, Lambo just wants to help Tsuna because he was nice to Lambo but now Lambo sees that Tsuna is just a jerk!”

If this is even a sliver of what raising children is like, then Tsuna needs to start making offerings to his mother every day. Maybe then, her smile will go back to the way it was before…

Tsuna has to close his eyes before he crouches down to be on the same level as Lambo. “Listen, if you attack another person without good reason then you are in the wrong.”

“Lambo doesn’t care!”

“Look, if you don’t then Reborn is just going to get rid of you after my training is done, is that what you want?!”

Lambo stills, lip trembling as his little body seems to flicker with the sunlight that fights through the clouds. He looks so small then, smaller than he already is, like a wisp of a babe about to flicker into dust.

“I—”

“Lambo is sorry,” comes the small whisper. “Lambo doesn’t want to go away. Please don’t leave.”

Tsuna feels a painful knot gather in his throat as he reaches out to the little child. ( _Remember what I told you,_ Reborn’s voice taunts him, _they aren’t human_. But Reborn, Tsuna wants to argue ever since Haru, they’re lonely, aren’t they? What does that mean?)

“I’m not mad. Just upset,” he says. “I wish I knew why you think like this… what happened to you, Lambo? I don’t want you to become corrupted… I don’t want you to…” _Haru just wanted to be friends_ , “…to disappear.”

In his arms, Lambo is quiet. There’s an animalistic glint to his eyes and half of his mouth has sharp teeth peeking out but the fluctuations are not as sharp as before. More gradual now, sand dripping in an hourglass.

“Lambo doesn’t remember his family very well. Lambo had a mama… but she went away… She told Lambo to wait for her and Lambo waited… and waited… but…” the sharp teeth dip into shadow, black streaks come down Lambo’s face as he shivers, “…L-Lambo w-waited, he, he was a good boy… Lambo waited and…”

No, Tsuna doesn’t want to hear this, it’s too cruel—

“…it was so cold.”

The knot in Tsuna’s throat seems to sharpen into a sob. “I’m so sorry,” he throws his arms around Lambo and holds him close, wishing he wore more layers under his uniform, wanting to will away the memory of cold. “I’m so sorry you had to remember that and that it’s what you fixate on now. I’m sorry that I’m using you and that Reborn is threatening you and I’m so sorry that you died, Lambo. _I’m sorry_.”

If Lambo was alive, with a real body, he’d be stiff. Bewildered at the hug, Tsuna thinks, unused to them. And that thought only makes Tsuna tighten his grip, feeling the pin prick frost sensation against his arms and cheek. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold anymore, it can’t compare to what Lambo’s gone through.

Lambo, who is looking at Tsuna with wide trembling eyes.

“I promise…” he says quietly, “I’ll help you stay uncorrupted for as long as possible. And even if you become corrupted, I won’t run away. I’ll help you find peace, Lambo.”

“…And… and if Lambo doesn’t want to leave yet…? If Lambo wants to stay…?”

“Then you can stay. For as long as you need to. I’ll do everything I can to help, I promise. I won’t leave,” Tsuna swears.

It’s as if Tsuna has recited the magic words to open the heavens because Lambo’s stare just lights up in awe before the child is clinging back, his touch no longer as cold as before. Just numb and tingling with Tsuna’s promise.

Maybe Reborn told Tsuna otherwise, but Tsuna still feels like he couldn’t save Haru. Maybe this time, he can save someone and maybe… maybe Haru’s out there, watching. Hopefully watching and proud.

-

They walk home in a dead silence, pun intended. Ghosts seem to trail around Tsuna with more interest now that they see Lambo and Tsuna tied together by a long blue string. But every time they come near Tsuna, Reborn either shoots them or they get shocked by the string while Lambo taunts them for trying to touch his ‘Tsuna-nii.’

Reborn raises an eyebrow at the endearment.

“I thought I told you not to get close to them again, Dame-Tsuna.”

He flinches under the reprimand but doesn’t look away from Reborn’s stare (though he wishes he could duck under a blanket, he really wants to.)

“…I know. But, last time, with Haru, you didn’t even give a chance… and…”

“Are you _arguing_ with me, _Tsuna_?” the baby breathes and somehow, his voice seems deeper than thunder trapped in a storming ocean.

“I…! No! I mean, yes! I mean, I’m sorry, but I have to try and see if all ghosts are really as dangerous as you say, Reborn! I don’t think Haru would have hurt me. I think you were… you were wrong, yesterday. And you’re wrong right now! Lambo might be… fluctuating or whatever but he’s still a child! He still understands right and wrong if you explain it to him!”

“So what will you do?” Reborn snorts. “Institutionalize all the spirits you meet? Teach them to be human again? Then what? Will you let them all live with you? Where will they go?”

Tsuna feels his face going red. “They can leave if they want to, try to move on. I think… I think there has to be a better way of doing this than using those flames… there has to be…”

Reborn yanks at Tsuna’s cheek, making Tsuna tear up.

“ _You_ … are too soft.”

Reborn’s shadow flickers again, the adult shadow seeming to fight its way out of the little shadow once more and Tsuna feels another wave of _how stupid of me, why did I argue, what was the point_ , when—

“I won’t help you with this,” Reborn’s voice interrupts. “I will continue instructing you in the true method of exorcism but I won’t prevent you from taking the measures you wish against the spirits you encounter unless they prove to be a direct threat to your life.”

Tsuna stares in disbelief, stares perhaps for so long that Reborn kicks him in the face.

“Don’t look so sloppy. It’s unbecoming of one of your blood.”

“But you—”

“I won’t say it again. You should be more vigilant, Dame-Tsuna.”

He can’t help it then, he laughs, laughs even though the pain in his throat hurts. Laughs when Lambo threatens to beat up Reborn for ‘making Tsuna-nii cry.’ Laughs because if he had argued with Reborn earlier, better, would Haru still be here now?

-

Later, watching Lambo clutch a bag of grape candy like it’s a treasured toy, Tsuna creeps over to his mum in the kitchen and gives her an impromptu hug.

Nana nearly drops her spoon into the pot, hands suspended, not quite hugging back but too practiced not to try.

“Tsuna!” she says pleasantly, “What was that for?”

“Nothing,” he doesn’t look up as he rubs his wet eyes against her apron. “Just… I know you must have had your reasons for not telling me about the spirits, so I don’t blame you.”

This time, Nana does put the spoon down on the counter.

“Tsuna…”

“I wish that you had talked to me anyways about it, but that can’t be helped. I can’t promise that I won’t be trouble because of it later but I just… I’m glad you’re my mum.”

Blushing furiously, Tsuna lets go and darts to the stairs, escaping Nana’s stunned expression.

-

“…By the way, Dame-Tsuna… did you put a mark on your hand for _every. Single. Time. That. Thing. Fluctuated?_ ”

“…Um. Er… No…?”

“Tsuna?”

“Please-don’t-shoot-me-I-have-homework.”

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

“Drop and give me fifty sit-ups.”

“ _Don’t shoot at Tsuna-nii—!”_

“Ah! Lambo, don’t just charge through the walls, you’ll get hurt!”

-

**Night. A Conversation between the Seven Reapers.**

-So how did he do with sensing today, kora?

-He’s formed an attachment to _the thing_ used as his training wheels. I’ll be testing the range of his senses over the week starting tomorrow.

-Hmmf! He’s keeping a pet ghost? That’s not very profitable for him. He should have made it into a guardian, made it submit to his whims.

-H-hey, g-go easy on the kid, s-sempais! It’s not e-easy to s-subdue a s-spirit and m-make it your s-servant, you know!

-Easy for the only reaper without spirit servants to say.

-H-hey!

-That’s not the point.

-What do you mean, kora?

-He has a… strange affinity for spirits… I need to observe him further.

-Strange? How so? Hello? Reborn?

[dial tone]

-God damn it, kora, I hate it when he does that!


	4. Alone Boy: The Living Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm late again but this chapter is super long to make up for it :)

**Part 1: Alone Boy**

** Episode 4: The Living Dead **

She’s giggling as she walks away. Her giggles are like droplets of glass raining down on the sinkhole of bones that Tsuna can’t crawl out of. His fingers are slipping. He tries to grab hold of a skull to climb up, but his fingers hook against the eye holes and he can’t help but scream out when its jaws chatter at him as if to complain at the rough treatment. He falls back. Deeper. Darker. Down. Down. Down.

“H-Haru!” he chokes out, neck deep in the bones, feeling as if bony fingers are yanking him down by the ankles too.

She doesn’t stop giggling. She can’t or she _won’t_ and Tsuna doesn’t know which is worse… it’s so dark now…

“Haru, p-please…!” the bones poke at his throat, wanting to pull out the red that flows so shallowly under skin. So close. He can’t see a thing anymore, just slivers of her silhouette and the slight gleam of sharp angular rib bones that start to press against his eyes…

 _Come back—_ red drips form his eyes as the bones press even closer— _its okay now—_ when he breathes, he think little bones must be crawling into his lungs and scratching them from the inside— _come back!_

“Poor boy,” he thinks a skull chatters by his lips. “She can’t come back, you know.”

He screams out when the skull draws blood on his tongue. The bones push him down until he can no longer feel his fingers.

-

 _Sorry, Tsuna,_ the orange whispers when he drowns in bones, _but you have to live now._

-

Tsuna is spluttering against his pillow, what is that. He can’t see, the colours are blurred, where are the skulls, he can’t see or breathe or—

“ _Tsuna-nii!_ ” an eerie presence settle itself against Tsuna’s chest, clutching at him, shivering and when Tsuna brings his hands up he remembers.

“L-Lambo…?” he blinks slowly, clarity slowly washing over his distressed tears.

“Tsuna-nii was shivering and moving in his sleep! Was there a monster under your bed?” Lambo’s face shifts into the Bull one, “Lambo can eat it for Tsuna-nii!”

“Ah, n-no,” Tsuna smiles, trying to will his wet eyes to dry, “I’m fine. No monsters here. And I don’t know if it would be okay to eat them.” He tries not to think of possibilities of indigestion. When Lambo’s head droops down in disappoint, Tsuna adds, “But thank you very much for coming to protect me. That was very brave and kind of you. Good job!”

At that, Lambo seems to preen, his face moving back to the human one, save for the still threatening eyes. “If any monster tries to attack Tsuna-nii in his sleep, the great Lambo will get rid of them for you!”

“I…” Tsuna is about to decline but he sees Lambo’s trembling fingers, the way Lambo’s eyes dart to the blankets and he swallows. “Me too, Lambo.”

The little ghost puffs his chest up with pride and stands in front of Tsuna, determined to be the best guard ever, as still as a Western suit of armor save for the slight twitches of Lambo’s legs. Tsuna almost gives a fond chuckle but taps Lambo on the shoulder instead.

How odd, he thinks, that ghosts feel so solid to him but they pass through everyone else. Sometimes he thinks that maybe he’s part spirit himself, cursed to be seen by the living and chased by the dead.

“Um, Lambo?”

He turns to Tsuna with a heavy salute. “Yes sir! Tsuna-nii, sir!”

“Well, since I’m still afraid and you’re doing such a good job protecting me, do you want to stay here?” he pats on the section of pillow next to him, “…I’d feel better if you were there.”

Immediately Lambo preens again and jumps into the covers next to Tsuna, “Don’t worry! Lambo won’t let the monsters give Tsuna-nii anymore bad dreams!”

When Tsuna smiles this time, it feels less like a lie and more like a lone feather lifting in the breeze. “…M’counting on you.”

He closes his eyes and listens to the ticking of his clock, substituting for Lambo’s nonexistent breaths.

-

Of course, Tsuna wakes up again with a bang as his sadist tutor orders him to start with _seventy_ push-ups and sit-ups this morning. Hasn’t Reborn heard of moderation for beginners in exercise? Does he _want_ Tsuna to sprain a muscle from overexertion? On second thought, Tsuna adds silently after Reborn nearly shoots off all of Tsuna’s fingers for ‘not having proper form’, this might be some sort of revenge for being nice to Lambo.

“Did you have a restful night, sleeping with the dead?” Reborn sneers.

Alright, never mind. Reborn is _definitely_ pissed at Tsuna for being nice to Lambo. He tries to glare at Reborn but only squeaks when Reborn just gives him a more frightening smirk.

But just before Tsuna is about to beg for forgiveness, Lambo hops on Tsuna’s head, making Reborn narrow his eyes, as Lambo shouts, “You’re just jealous because Tsuna needed _me_ to chase away the monsters instead of you!”

“Uh, Lambo, I’m not so sure that—”

He hears Reborn cock his pistol while the air seems to grow frigid.

“Wh-what are you doing…? W-wait, don’t shoot Lambo…!”

How does his mum find the time to repair these walls? They should be littered with holes by now, Tsuna’s mind wonders unhelpfully as he grabs Lambo and darts back and forth to dodge more bullets in the room.

-

“I’ll be testing your range,” Reborn announces from on top of a pile of discarded textbooks and pillows.

Tsuna peeks out cautiously from the safety of his closet, holding Lambo to him in case he needs to sprint again. “U-um… okay...” he waits a few moments, to see if Reborn will shoot again and when Reborn doesn’t, Tsuna says, “…so, I guess that means Lambo won’t be sitting in class with me today…?”

“Correct. Guess your mind isn’t as malleable as Swiss cheese after all, idiot-Tsuna.”

Honestly, Tsuna doesn’t even hear the backhanded compliments Reborn throws out anymore. They seem like an interwoven part of his language.

“But Lambo doesn’t want to be away from Tsuna-nii! Lambo promised to protect Tsuna-nii from monsters!”

“Ah, it was only for the night…” Tsuna tries to reassure Lambo, at this rate Reborn might really kill the kid (er, again), “I should be fine at school… Reborn is there and I haven’t been attacked by ghosts… Ah.” Tsuna suddenly recalls Reborn’s words about two spirits present at Namimori. Now he definitely doesn’t feel as safe as before.

But he can’t just keep Reborn and Lambo near him because he’s afraid. Tsuna may not like it but Lambo _has_ to be used as his ‘training wheels’ otherwise Reborn will find no more use for Lambo and exorcise him no matter what Tsuna says. Besides… this is something Tsuna has to learn… if he can’t tell the difference between ghosts and people then ( _Haru just wanted to be friends_ ), then… ( _poor boy, she won’t come back_ —)

No. He has to think about helping other ghosts like Haru. What use is he for other than this?

-

Lambo and Reborn are still arguing back and forth when Tsuna snaps out of his thoughts. Well, more like Lambo is trying to antagonize Reborn while the reaper yawns and starts shooting off his gun at Lambo as if it’s timed to his heartbeats.

“Hey, will you two stop it?!” Tsuna pulls Lambo out of the way. “Reborn, I thought you said you’d leave him alone!”

“I said I wouldn’t help you. I never said anything about exterminating the pest if it comes near me,” Reborn eyes the scowling child with disdain, “or if your little experiment goes to hell, and trust me it _will_ , I never said I wouldn’t send it to hell when that happens.”

“Will you at least stop calling him a ‘thing’ or ‘it’, he has a name,” Tsuna groans.

“Really? I never noticed.”

“Stupid Reborn,” Lambo hisses, “you’ll be sorry when Lambo eats you!”

“Lambo what have we said about eating people?!”

“Reborn doesn’t count as ‘people’, he’s a reaper! Tsuna-nii said so!”

“Look,” Tsuna fights the impulse to rub his forehead, “if we’re all going to be living in the same house then we need to get along whether we like each other or not. Yes, Lambo, you could attack Reborn but you won’t because I need him. He’s my tutor.”

Lambo’s scowl fades into a pout while Reborn stares at Tsuna oddly.

“And Reborn,” he continues, avoiding Reborn’s gaze, “how are we supposed to know if this will work out if you keep attacking Lambo every time he moves? You said you’d give me a chance to try this but it won’t work if you exorcise him just because you feel like it. Um, not to be disrespectful or anything. It would just… mean a lot if you two could… tolerate? Yeah, just tolerate each other for a bit.”

Reborn says nothing. His shadow doesn’t even tremble, staying long and still as the black seems to stare at Tsuna too.

“As long as _Lambo_ knows his place, then fine. I’ll shoot him if he becomes completely Corrupt.”

Lambo crosses his arms but at least he doesn’t attack Reborn again. “Only because Lambo can be polite, unlike _some_ jerks.”

Tension leaving his shoulders, Tsuna beams at them before he turns towards the doorway.

Nana, frozen in mid-knock with the door wide open, blinks at Reborn and Tsuna in bright confusion. “Tsuna, dear… who were you two talking to?”

“Um…”

-

To be honest, the apology Tsuna gave Nana last evening seems to make their relationship more awkward than before. Tsuna doesn’t know what to say to her beyond ‘hellos’ and ‘thank yous’ and he tries to recall the last time he had a proper conversation with Nana, the last time they bonded. Rarely, if at all. Even before Reborn came, Tsuna’s been hiding up in his room away from the ghosts, too ashamed of himself to speak with her, afraid to hear her call him useless.

What kind of son is he if he doesn’t know how to talk with his own mother? Tsuna swallows and clenches his jaw. He needs to change. He can’t keep being afraid. He has to help Lambo and he can’t keep being this pathetic with his mum but what can he say?

(The truth. Always the truth. He won’t lie. He won’t be like his old man.)

“Ah… well…” he fiddles with his fingers, “his name is Lambo.”

Nana blinks at him.

“…He’s a ghost that Reborn, um, introduced to me for my training. He’s staying with me but don’t worry he won’t be a bother!”

“I’d shoot it dead before that happened.”

“Reborn!” Tsuna hisses.

“Shoot?” Nana moves towards him, “Is this ghost putting you in danger, Tsuna? Maybe—”

“No!” Tsuna insists, “Lambo is a good kid! He won’t do anything to hurt me!”

But Nana seems to read something else in Tsuna’s face because her brow furrows and she murmurs, “Maybe we should phone your father, ask him—”

“ _I’m fine!_ ”

Nana’s smile falters again but this time she does not remain quiet. “Tsuna, I just want you safe. I realize I haven’t asked your father much about this spirit business but I should have. Tsuna, dear, you’ve been looking so tired lately…”

Tsuna wants to kick himself. He didn’t mean to make her feel worried, she shouldn’t have to deal with this…

“Mum, I’m fine. Really. Reborn and I are taking care of Lambo,” well, Tsuna more than Reborn, “I’m safe. You don’t need to worry about me, I’m training hard so I can be useful…”

Definitely not the right thing to say with how Nana’s eyes widen.

“Mum—” he glances briefly at the clock and shrieks, “I’m late!”

“But—”

“I’m sorry Mum but I have to go! I’m really okay though so you don’t need to worry, really! Love you, bye!”

He rushes out the door leaving Nana standing alone in his room. She clenches his fists and goes to the phone. Without hesitating, she dials a number and waits, foot tapping against the floor.

-

“I don’t understand why _Dad_ hasn’t told her anything!” Tsuna scowls, so angry that he doesn’t even notice the creepy Corrupted passing by. Reborn sits leisurely on his head again, shooting off random bullets while Lambo sits in Tsuna’s arms, carrying Tsuna’s bag.

“I told you, idiot, exorcists are—”

“—meant to be alone, I know, ow!”

“That’s for interrupting,” Reborn pinches Tsuna’s ear.

“I just,” Tsuna slumps, “he should have said something. If exorcists are supposed to be alone then how do they learn anything? What about other exorcists? Why did he marry Mum if he wasn’t going to stay, if he knew he _couldn’t_ stay? That’s just cruel. He should have taken responsibility if he was going to break the rules. Wait. _Is_ that a rule?”

He waits, half expecting Reborn to shoot him for disrespect again but he’s surprised when Reborn says nothing.

Instead, Lambo pipes up, “Adults are selfish. They don’t do a good job of growing up.”

Tsuna blinks in surprise at the answer. “Mum is not selfish.” He can’t say much about Iemitsu.

But Lambo’s face flickers again to that of the creature. “Mum ran away and she called it a promise.”

“What…?” Nana didn’t run away, Tsuna is about to say but then he realizes that Lambo isn’t talking about Nana at all.

“Oh Lambo…” Tsuna hugs the child closer. He wishes he could contradict him but what proof can Tsuna offer? Just his own Mum, Nana, and Lambo doesn’t even believe in her after Tsuna started carelessly complaining about Iemitsu. Tsuna wishes he could tape his mouth shut, maybe then he wouldn’t make such a mess of things. But that’s not what Lambo needs. Stability, Tsuna has to be stable and he has to be there for him.

“You know I won’t lie to you, right, Lambo?”

Lambo snuggles closer. “Lambo knows. Tsuna-nii is not like them. Tsuna-nii is not an adult.”

Tsuna frowns. “But I will be, someday.”

Lambo scowls. “Then Lambo will just have to watch Tsuna-nii closely and make sure Tsuna-nii doesn’t change.”

Tsuna’s not sure if that’s any better but Lambo seems determined to have Tsuna stay fourteen (mentally and hopefully not physically?)

“He’s right, you know,” Tsuna nearly jumps when Reborn speaks again, his voice softer than usual. “Adults lie. They teach it to their children and those children grow up to be liars. We live in a world of lies and liars.” Reborn pauses and brushes his hand against Tsuna’s hair, “Remember that, Dame-Tsuna.”

“Reborn…”

“Don’t trust so easily,” Reborn flicks Tsuna’s hair. “Trust gets you killed, especially in the world you will grow into. People like you…”

Tsuna stills, listening to the wind as if it will whisper the reaper’s next words to him.

“You know you’re going to be late if you don’t run, right?” Reborn says instead.

“ _What?!_ ”

Reborn’s strange behavior is forgotten as Tsuna dashes to class.

-

There is five minutes to spare as Tsuna gets to the courtyard, halted by a group of girls who block the door. Normally Tsuna would just sneak around them and go on with the monotonous tedium of education but then he hears snippets of their conversation.

“—how does he always know when we’re skipping anyways?” one of the girls whisper. “It’s creepy! You don’t think he’s a stalker do you?”

Tsuna feels the hairs on the back of his neck raise as a familiar presence comes closer behind him.

“Face it, Hibari is _everywhere_. That’s so not normal.”

“Yeah, I’m afraid of going to my locker sometimes for tampons because he might punch me!”

“No way, he wouldn’t punch a girl, would he?!”

Tsuna frowns and tries to remember if he’s ever seen Hibari attack a girl before. Hibari seems to be an equal opportunist if someone is breaking the rules but he’s never actually punched someone to face (at least not anyone who could not fight back.) Anyways, gossiping in public is rather rude, especially when said-person is nearby (and frankly capable of said punching) so Tsuna moves to interrupt except a cold hand touches his shoulders.

“Little herbivore you should go to class,” the cold whisper sends a chill down Tsuna’s spine.

“Ah! H-Hibari-sempai! Um… well, I’m s-sure they d-didn’t mean to be r-rude,” Tsuna tries to move in Hibari’s path.

“Step aside.”

Tsuna shivers but he does not move.

“Hey you leave my Tsuna-nii alone!” Lambo growls. Tsuna covers Lambo’s mouth with his hand even though he knows no one can hear Lambo.

Hibari’s eyebrow seems to develop a twitch. “I will not inflict bodily harm on those herbivores. They are not worth my time.”

Tsuna (stupidly) remains in spot. He’ll probably be burnt to death under Hibari’s glare. He should have asked his mum to take care of Lambo if he dies except Nana can’t see ghosts so then he’d have to ask Reborn but Reborn would probably just shoot Lambo anyways so this is bad idea, so very bad—

“…You have my word.”

“Oh,” Tsuna nearly slumps over on the floor. “Um,” he wobbles to the side, “I guess I’ll get going then…”

“Sawada!” a cheerful greeting comes his way. Tsuna blinks, wondering if he’s hallucinating it. No one’s _ever_ this happy to see Tsuna. Well, as he hugs Lambo to his chest, no one alive anyways.

But sure enough, Yamamoto breaks away from his group of friends to slap a hand on Tsuna’s back. “Good morning! How are you doing today?”

“Uh, fine, I just talking to…” Tsuna turns to Hibari but sees no one. The girls are gone as well though when Tsuna peeks to the lockers, he sees the backs of their heels as they go upstairs, running as if their lives depend on it (which, knowing Hibari, they probably do.)

Yamamoto frowns, “Talking to…? Oh! You mean that game you play, right? Where you talk to invisible people?”

“ _Um_ …” Tsuna tries to think of some sort of believable excuse besides ‘actually I talk to ghosts.’

“Hmm… sharp one, this Yamamoto,” Reborn muses while Lambo just glares at Yamamoto as he glares at everyone who comes near his Tsuna-nii.

“Hey, it’s cool! I thought you were weird at first but you’re nice so there’s nothing wrong with being weird and nice. Kind of like the boxing club.”

“Boxing club…?” Tsuna’s never really paid much attention to Namimori sports. The only reason he knows the baseball team exists is because of all the fans in his class and the fact that Yamamoto has always been a person who draws attention.

“Yeah, they get _really_ into it, even more than my coach. They even practice at nighttime, no wonder they always win the city championship,” Yamamoto’s eyes seem to darken like before. “I need to practice more too…”

“Oh, well you’re a great player! I mean, I don’t know much about baseball but I know the team plays best when you’re the batter. You guys haven’t even won a championship yet but I know you’re talented. I’ve never even heard that we had a boxing team!” Tsuna rambles, unsure why. Yamamoto just looked so far away before…

“Really?” Yamamoto seems to brighten. “Thanks Sawada!”

“Oi Yamamoto!” one of his baseball friends call. “What are you doing with Dame-Tsuna? Come on, we’ll be late!”

“Ah, coming!” he grins before he ruffles Tsuna’s hair (Reborn, seeing this, hops to Tsuna’s shoulder), “Talk to you later, Sawada!”

Tsuna only blinks, trying to preserve the oddity of a classmate being genuinely friendly (not just robotically saying ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’) to his memory.

Then the bell rings.

“Oh my god, I’m late!” Tsuna goes to get his indoor shoes from his locker.

“Stop right there,” Reborn orders, jumping down to shoot at Tsuna’s feet. Tsuna doesn’t really yelp this time, so much as whimper, but at least his feet are in one piece.

“Oi, what are you doing, stupid-Reborn?!” Lambo growls protectively.

“We’re having a little tutorial session, what else?” Reborn sets out a chart from out of nowhere. “Now shut up and listen. Don’t worry, I had Nana write up a note to excuse you from the first class. Your attendance won’t be affected. Much.”

Just when Tsuna thought he’d skipped Reborn’s little lesson after that terrible push-up and sit-up session.

                                                                              -         

“We need to train your hyper-intuition before we can truly test your range in sensing spirits,” Reborn explains from the top of the lockers. Tsuna’s neck feels like it will melt if Tsuna has to keep looking up to see him.

“Hyper-intuition? What’s that? Sounds weird,” Lambo wrinkles his nose.

Reborn just sneers at him before he turns back to Tsuna. “Have you noticed that each ghost has their own distinct feeling?”

Tsuna furrows his brow, recalling how Haru and Lambo felt to him when they were fluctuating. For Haru, Tsuna always felt like there was a light underlying feeling of happiness and loyalty, even when it was being smothered by her Corrupted state. With Lambo, Tsuna feels dying innocence and longing in different shades of colour. A mix of colour and feeling blended together. But the corruption in each is that same contradictory dull and harsh red raging in their souls. But there is also this… this _lack_. Tsuna doesn’t think that’s the right word for it… but _lack_ is all he can think of right now.

“I… yeah, I think so. Corruption feels the same. Dark. But it’s slightly different for everyone.”

He’s not sure how else to describe it.

Reborn gives an approving nod. “You’re more perceptive than I would have guessed. It’s easier for now to detect a corrupted spirit than one that is not. But as the corrupted spirits are the ones that will attack you instantly, we won’t work with the dangers of uncorrupted spirits until later. Hyper-intuition will help you sense individual spirits and recognize who they are before they attack. It has more applications but we’ll get to that eventually.”

“Right…”

“For now, I want you to visualize the layout of this school. Plant it in your mind and concentrate.”

“What’s the point of that? Stupid!” Lambo says what Tsuna also wonders. But maybe this will help him with this ‘hyper-intuition’ and ‘sensing-ghosts’ thing so Tsuna gives it a try.

He closes his eyes. Tunes out Lambo and Reborn’s bickering. Imagines the steps to the long hallways stretching out on each floor of the school. Pictures the students sitting in rows and rows of desks, all scribbling down their notes attentively. He passes over them, upperclassmen he’s never really talked too and teachers he has avoided. Then he’s in his classroom, hearing Sasagawa-sensei explain the latest math problems. She always reminds him of little firework sparks, the kind little children hold on their birthdays. Nice and warm. Tsuna’s desk is empty, an absence that asks him to return but Tsuna pictures Yamamoto sitting a few rows in front of him, dozing off already or doodling about baseball. Yamamoto is a different kind of warmth. More cool and fluid but no doubt quick to adapt and destroy the enemy team in a winning strike.

Then Tsuna pictures the rooftop where he spends his time, the peace he feels there… the tree where he always sees Hibari sitting in. Tsuna can see Hibari sitting there now, arms crossed as he studies the school intensely, like it’s a shiny jewel that he can’t let out of his sight. The dangerous feeling that Tsuna always gets around Hibari is heightened in this spot so much Tsuna moves on to avoid being overwhelmed and to imagine the baseball diamond in their school yard and then gym where he feels… he feels—

Tsuna winces, feeling that _lack_ again but none of the dark corruption that he sometimes feels from Lambo or what he felt from Haru in her last moments.

“There’s something… something in the gym,” Tsuna whispers. A chill comes over him. How many times had he been down there, sitting on the sidelines while everyone else played volleyball or basketball? He’d always assumed the unease he felt down there had been because of his loneliness but to think there might be a ghost there…

Reborn raises his brow and doesn’t say anything for a moment. “Your hyper-intuition stretched farther than I thought… and you were able to pick out an uncorrupted ghost. Looks like you _can_ differentiate between the living and the dead if you try.”

“Uh…” Tsuna can hardly believe it. Is Reborn actually complimenting him? He feels heat rush to his cheeks. “…Thank you?”

“Which means that we’ll have to increase your training and if I find you mistaking some ghost for the living again I _will_ shoot your fluffy hair off.”

“I… _what_?!”

“Can Lambo eat Reborn _now_?”

So much for that moment.

-

Reborn slaps the note excusing his absence on Tsuna’s nose and some headphones on Tsuna’s ears before tugging Lambo away with the leash.

“Hey don’t treat him so roughly, you promised!” Tsuna scowls, trying to peel the note off his nose. It’s not working. Knowing Tsuna’s luck, this note will be stuck on his face forever and people will start calling him ‘post-it-boy’ instead of ‘dame-Tsuna.’

With a long-suffering sigh, Reborn rolls his eyes. “Remember to tap the headphones when you can no longer pinpoint Lambo’s presence. I will ask you where we are and you will answer _as soon as I ask_ , got it?”

“But, what about class—?”

“That’s special exorcist gear. No one without spiritual powers will be able to see them or notice you talking into them. There’s a microphone that comes out when you need to reply, see?” Reborn tugs at Tsuna’s ear and from the side of the red head phones a side microphone pops out. “Since we’ve determined that your range with hyper-intuition is about perimeter of the school, then your range should be able to stretch further—”

“Why?”

“Less energy is needed since you’re doing general sensing and focusing on one signature… like that thing Lambo. We’ll be out of the school so you need to be vigilant. Don’t talk to anything that has that _lack_ you described earlier. Those are ghosts. I don’t anticipate you being attacked on Namimori soil unless you piss off the powerful spirit that resides here but so far I’ve seen no problem, so you should be fine—”

“Super powerful spirit?!”

Tsuna hasn’t felt anything like that, not even when he was using his hyper-intuition or whatever Reborn called it. Then again, when he recalls what Reborn said about the two spirits at his school… Reborn mentioned that the powerful spirit has a great sense of self-control… maybe that has something to do with it…? Wait—

“What about the other spirit? The one in the gym?”

“Idiot. Have you listened to what I’ve taught you? Stay away from it. It hasn’t met you—”

Then what about the gym classes? The _lack_ Tsuna recognized from his memories now?

“— _officially_ yet. It’s stayed away from the gym when regular classes use it. It stays close but not too close. You’d best follow that strategy,” a menacing glint gleams in Reborn’s eyes, “do _not_ go seeking it out. Not yet. Not without me.”

“Right. Yes. Of course,” Tsuna nods quickly.

He doesn’t understand why Reborn even needs to lecture him about this. Tsuna doesn’t go searching for ghosts to hurt him or anything. He’s too busy running away.

 _Not lately though_ , he realizes as he looks back at Lambo before waving goodbye. _Not since Haru_.

-

At this rate, Tsuna will probably fail his classes. He doesn’t remember what Sasagawa-sensei said at all, too busy concentrating on the feel of Lambo’s fluctuating dark-yet-not-dark presence, the unique flavour of _lack_ that belonged to Lambo alone and the strange barely-warm presence of Reborn. He hopes that Reborn hasn’t bullied the little guy too much (knowing Reborn, Lambo has probably suffered too many untold traumas already.)

Maybe Tsuna would have been able to take some poor form of math notes if he had just concentrated on Lambo but Reborn’s presence puzzles him.

Reborn doesn’t feel like Tsuna’s classmates who have varying degrees of warmth. Sasagawa-sensei and Yamamoto, in particular, seem to have more warmth to them than others. But Reborn… is lukewarm? Maybe? Not quite cold but not quite warm either. A flame that’s been eclipsed under layers of shadow. Not dark in the way that the corrupted are dark but just… shadow. There. Not menacing. Just a constant shadow.

He leans back against his seat with a sigh. If he asks Reborn about it, he doubts that Reborn will answer. Reborn’s lukewarm presence might just be a reaper thing. Maybe if Tsuna met another reaper he could verify it…?

Anyways, pushing his hyper-intuition and then his sensing just makes Tsuna’s head feel as if it’s being slowly sawed into with a blunt katana. He can’t even focus on the words in his textbook anymore. They blur together and seem to join in his chorus of pain—

“Sawada-kun?”

“Ah!” Tsuna jumps, picking up his bag quickly. “S-Sorry for s-staying behind, Sasagawa-sensei. I was j-just s-spacing out. I’ll b-be going n-now!”

“Wait, please!” she touches his shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I have a favour to ask.”

“A favour?” Maybe Sasagawa-sensei has the wrong person. Tsuna’s not the type of student that teachers ask favours from unless it’s to sweep the floors or clean the windows.

She ducks her head which is odd. Normally Sasagawa-sensei is a calm and assured person as she speaks. To see her so closed off makes Tsuna nervous.

“I’ve heard from the other students that you… speak to things.”

Tsuna freezes. Oh no. Not Sasagawa-sensei too. He doesn’t think he could stand a lecture about lying from one of his favourite teachers. The only one who seems to listen to him when he wants to be alone at lunch.

But Sasagawa-sensei continues, ignorant to Tsuna’s thoughts, “…I’ve never taken much notice to what they say. Children can be cruel… but yesterday… you really _were_ talking to someone, weren’t you?”

 _What?_ Tsuna thinks.

“I don’t… I don’t know—”

“I saw it. A shadow of something,” Sasagawa-sensei presses, her face more determined as she crosses her arms. For a moment, Tsuna thinks he sees his mother when she’s upset at him but that image passes.

“You… are you sure…?” his hands are sweaty and Tsuna can’t feel his bag anymore. He can’t put his hopes up. Other people don’t _see_ things like he does. Just look at what happened with Haru. She was a ghost and Tsuna’s fairly sure that Sasagawa-sensei is not a spirit (she feels too warm to be one) but he can’t stand another cruel prank.

“There was a shadow there! A little being! I _know_ what I saw!” she shouts and Tsuna backs away, knocking over a chair.

They both stare in shock at the chair’s dangling legs.

“I… apologize. That was… inappropriate of me,” Sasagawa-sensei says stiffly. “But I will not let you leave until you answer my questions, Sawada-kun. Tell me… can you see the dead?”

-

The first time Tsuna told someone he could see spirits, it’s his mum and she lies to him. He’s not sure why he remembers this now, as he stares at Sasagawa-sensei, as he tries to push this terrible bitterness down inside himself but he can’t help it.

He’s six again. He’s crying because his mum just told him that there’s no granny there. Just as she used to tell him that there are no monsters (but that’s not true, Tsuna can _see_ them, but if other children say this too and no adults believe them then does that mean children grow up into people who ignore the monsters walking amongst them?)

He cries a lot when he’s six. He never really stops but Nana always tells him that there’s nothing there. Probably just his imagination. Probably an object he mistook for a monster. Probably.

But he has to make her see. So he tugs on her sleeve and he points and he says, “I know they’re not there but I can _see_ them, Mama!”

He doesn’t recognize it then but in retrospect, he does now. Nana has her frozen sunshine smile, the one she has when she doesn’t want to show her emotions.

“I’m sorry Tsu-kun, but Mama doesn’t understand this game.”

She lies to him because his _father_ tells her too and she honestly doesn’t see them. It’s not until the children at school start calling him ‘liar’ and ‘freak’ that Tsuna stops trying to convince them all that he can see anything.

Better to pretend that the monsters aren’t there, just like everyone else.

-

“…Why?”

Sasagawa-sensei frowns at him, her face soft and sympathetic but Tsuna can see the determination there.

“Why are you asking me this?” Tsuna repeats. “Sensei, you wouldn’t ask me this if it wasn’t important...”

Her lips form a thin line. “Can you really see the dead?” she presses again.

“You can only believe what you want to,” Tsuna takes a leaf out of Reborn’s book with a cryptic answer.

She studies him for a moment, probably thinking of all the times that Tsuna has talked to ‘himself’ lately in the hallways and the rich rumours that circulate the school.

“When I was in middle school,” she begins to Tsuna’s confusion, “I never thought I’d become a teacher… I always thought… Well, let’s start again. I had an older brother,” she smiles, eyes clouded over with sadness, “he was an annoying but optimistic guy. A boxing nerd. Always running around talking about the extreme aspects of life and trying to protect me… getting into stupid fights… and the year he was supposed to graduate from middle school he…” she swallows, “there was an accident. Any dreams I… any dreams _he_ had… died.”

Tsuna has no idea how to react. But before he can say anything, Sasagawa-sensei actually bows her head towards him and Tsuna freaks out, telling her to stop.

“Please!” she ignores him. “I know it’s inappropriate to ask, but if you can really see the dead, please help my brother! I think… I think he’s haunting the school. I think he used to haunt _me_ until he left but he’s still _here_ and I won’t be able to… _he_ won’t be able to find peace until he passes on, I _know it_. You have to help him!”

“I… _please stop bowing_ ,” he says quickly, refusing to think until she does. When Sasagawa-sensei lifts her head, Tsuna fiddles with his hands. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t know that you lost your brother… but I can’t…” he stops when he sees Sasagawa-sensei’s stricken face.

How much courage had it taken to tell a student something so personal? Particularly when she didn’t know if Tsuna would gossip it about it later? (Tsuna wouldn’t do that but there was still the _risk_ that Sasagawa-sensei had taken.) Tsuna… has never been brave enough to do that. When he was little and more naïve, he tried telling anyone he thought might listen. But now… now he just keeps silent.

How long is he going to run away for?

“I’m not… I can only…” he closes his eyes and blurts out, “I can only see the dead. I don’t know if I can help them. They can be dangerous if they… if they become corrupted and I don’t think it’s a good idea to disturb them, even if they do need to pass on…”

Sasagawa-sensei’s face falls

“…But I can try,” he tells her.

Reborn is right. Tsuna is a trouble-magnet. But the hope on Sasagawa-sensei’s face almost washes away his regret. Almost.

(After all, once a coward, always a coward, right?)

-

There are students staying behind for various club meetings. Tsuna looks through the doors they pass at the cooking club and the sewing club. The students there look so happy and content with their friends, ignoring the sight of Sasagawa-sensei and Tsuna walking together to the stairs. Tsuna even spots Yamamoto out the windows, practicing his batting while a hint of shadow by the tree is all Tsuna sees of Hibari.

His head hurts so much, why won’t it stop stinging…? The pain seems to push further into his skull, closer and closer to the back of his eyes.

“Um,” Tsuna speaks up, when he realizes where they’re going, his unease growing more tangled up in his spine. “Sasagawa-sensei… are we heading towards the gym?”

She gives him a slightly surprised but strained nod. “Yes… how did you…?”

Tsuna fights back a dizzy spell and murmurs, “I can feel something there…” The pain shouldn’t hurt so much just from being near an uncorrupted ghost (because that’s what Ryohei-san is, right? Tsuna can’t feel the dark murky corrupted taint, not yet.)

This only quickens Sasagawa-sensei’s steps. “That must be him. It has to be!”

“Sasagawa-sensei… I know you said that he’s haunting the school… but _why_?” Tsuna frowns. He wishes that Reborn was here with him. Reborn would know. But then again, if Reborn was here, he’d probably beat Tsuna for revealing his sight because of someone’s ‘sob story’ and then dragged Tsuna home for discipline and more training.

(Reborn is going to kill Tsuna for ignoring his calls on the headphones.)

A too-bright smile makes its way across Sasagawa-sensei’s face, reminding Tsuna of his mum again. “No reason,” she says. “He always loved boxing.”

Is that how it works? You die and you haunt what you love? Somehow Tsuna doesn’t think so but maybe…

“Did he… did he die here?”

Sasagawa-sensei doesn’t answer.

-

“Sh!” Sasagawa-sensei stops him just before the open doors of the gym. She motions for him to tiptoe, much to his confusion, but Tsuna follows. They both peek into the gym where a boxing ring is set up and the boxing team that Yamamoto told him about is busy doing running laps around the ring.

It would be a normal sight if it wasn’t for the glazed looks of excitement on all the team members’ faces… unnaturally determined and fiery expressions that make them seem like crazed fanatics chasing for treasure.

“What are we going to do?!” Mochida, captain of the Kendo team (and apparently the boxing club too?) yells at them all.

“ _Win the cup!_ ” the rest shout with equal intensity.

“How are we going to do that?!” Mochida roars, making Tsuna flinch from memories of getting beat up by him.

“By going to the _extreme_!” they roar back.

“I… what…?” Tsuna has never seen such an enthusiastic bunch of students. Is this even normal? There’s something funny about them all too. Tsuna’s head is ringing at him now, screaming for him to back away with his splitting headache but Tsuna has to figure this out… The boxing club feels too… too hot, boiling even, that can’t be healthy and Tsuna suddenly spots a subtle presence of _lack_ among the running students and _there he is!_

He looks like the rest of them. Alive. Sweaty. Just as determined and scarily competitive. But Tsuna sees Sasagawa-sensei’s eyes in him, the same nose too. His hair is a cropped, yet kind of spiky silver and he looks like he would tower over Sasagawa-sensei, even as she’s grown older than him in years.

“I think I can see him…”

“Can you really?!” Sasagawa-sensei digs into her purse and pulls out a photo with flare. “Is this the person you see?”

“I…” Tsuna studies a cute looking girl who he assumes is the younger Sasagawa-sensei with the exact same boy running in the boxing club now. She’s shorter in the photograph, probably around Tsuna’s height now, with short hair like his mum. Her smile is so natural and brighter too, making Tsuna see just how tired Sasagawa-sensei’s smiles have always been… “Yes,” he nods. “That’s him.”

“Please,” she whispers, some of the brightness from her younger self returning to her eyes, “can you talk to him?”

“But—”

“I can’t go with you. He’ll vanish. I’ve tried,” Sasagawa-sensei starts to pace back and forth. “I used to see his shadow all the time but after… Well, ever since he stopped haunting me, he’s been haunting the boxing club. I’ve tried to sit in on their practices but then he’s just… gone! They lose their energy and motivation, it’s not the same. But if _you_ could go talk to him, he won’t vanish.”

“But I…” _can’t_ , he wants to say.

Except he doesn’t. Didn’t he promise himself he wouldn’t run away? It’s just one meeting. He wants to try to deal with ghosts in a different way. Isn’t this a good start? One meeting is surely not enough for Ryohei to hunger for him…

“…What do you want me to say?”

-

“U-um, Mochida-sempai?” Tsuna trembles as he creeps up to him.

“What?” Mochida snarls, his hands twitching for his absent kendo stick, probably to whack Tsuna with. How fun.

“S-Sasagawa-sensei n-needs you for s-something…”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I’m in the middle of practice! What does she want?”

“S-She said it was an e-emergency s-so p-please…?”

“Aw, fine. But you lot better do fifty more fucking laps, alright? I’ll be back,” he says to Tsuna this time, likely blaming him for the interruption as he storms off.

Tsuna lets out a strangled breath and wills himself to stay upright. Breathe in. Breathe out. Ignore the headache. Breathe. He glances over to where Ryohei is running with the rest of the club and decides that he might as well run with them. He doesn’t know if they can see Ryohei too but from what Sasagawa-sensei implied, he’s more of a shadow to her so Tsuna assumes they can’t see Ryohei after all.

Right. Tsuna stretches his arms and then joins in their laps. He goes straight to Ryohei’s side since Tsuna won’t have much energy to keep up for more than two small laps, and says, “Um, hi Ryohei-san.”

The ghost freezes and stops right there, making Tsuna smash into several other limbs (and shout apologies) so that he can go to him.

They stand just outside of the boxing club’s path, by the wall. Tsuna struggles not to look away from Ryohei’s bewildered gaze.

“…Did you say my name?”

“Um… yes…” Tsuna tenses, ready to run if Ryohei attacks.

But instead Ryohei jumps up, throwing his arms over Tsuna, gleefully shouting. “Amazing! I’ve never met such an extreme fella like you! Who knew there were guys out there who could see dead people?! That’s amazing!”

“Uh, great? I can’t, um, you’re cold?” Tsuna squeaks and Ryohei backs away.

“Ah, I’m sorry little guy! I’m just so happy to meet such an extreme dude! Man, I wish I could tell my sister! Wait, if you can see me _and_ talk to me maybe you can tell her for me! Ah, but she might not believe you and I made an epic promise not to interfere in her life unless she’s in epic danger so I guess you shouldn’t. Oh but you should come join the boxing club! Then we can talk all the time and—”

“W-wait!” Tsuna stretches out his hands, grasping at Ryohei’s sleeve. “I k-know your s-sister! S-she asked me to talk to y-you!”

Ryohei’s eyes go so wide that Tsuna’s slightly concerned that they will fall out.

“No way! But…! Is she here right now?!” he looks wildly around the exits, “Don’t let her come in! I can’t be near her!”

“But why?” Tsuna holds on to his sleeve. “She wants to talk to you! She says that she’s okay now and that she loves you and she forgi—”

“ _NO!_ ” Ryohei shouts, as all the lights in the gym shatter into pieces. The boxing club stops running, trying to get away from the stray shards. Ryohei turns around, his arms shaking with frustration. “Not again. I’m sorry, little guy, but you can’t be near me. I’m _extremely_ dangerous!”

“W-wait! I still have things to s-say!” Tsuna grabs his arm.

Ryohei stops, his breath hitched. He looks at Tsuna fearfully.

“You… you feel warm…” he whispers.

And then he yanks his arm away, as if he’s been electrocuted, and rushes through the ceiling away from the yelling students and Tsuna.

-

“Sawada? Sawada—oh my god, what happened?! Tsuna? _Tsuna!_ ”

Who is that? Tsuna can hardly hear anything with the ringing in his ears and his headache screaming that it’s finally conquered his brain and wow Tsuna’s never felt so numb before, is that the ground again? Hello friend…

Someone grabs his shoulders and touches his forehead and it isn’t until Tsuna registers their cool fingertips that he realizes that it is Sasagawa-sensei.

“I… Sensei?” Tsuna winces. It hurts to speak right now. “Wh-where did Ryohei-san go…?”

“Never mind that, are you alright? Do you remember who you are? How many fingers am I holding up? I’m going to take you to the nurse…” Sasagawa-sensei held him up by the shoulder.

“But your brother—”

“He’s not important right now, Tsuna, don’t worry about that. I shouldn’t have asked you to talk to him,” she assures him but Tsuna sees the conflict in her, he remembers how friendly Ryohei was.

“W-we need t-to find him… I… I think…”

“No, Tsuna, it’s done now. Thank you for trying. Let’s go to the nurse.”

“But—”

A chill comes over Tsuna as he vaguely registers a familiar lukewarm presence behind him and the unique fluctuating one held by a leash.

“I would listen to the lady, Idiot-Tsuna,” says a cold voice and Tsuna gulps. “I thought I told you not to go near any more ghosts.”

Luckily (or unluckily), Tsuna’s body chooses to collapse at that moment and he loses all consciousness while Sasagawa-sensei, Lambo (and is that Yamamoto?) call for him.

-

He doesn’t dream, he realizes when he wakes up in the infirmary. His chest feels empty at this fact. He’s been looking forward to seeing Haru in his dreams, even if she’s gone. How sad is that?

As he furiously wipes the tear trails from his cheeks, he notices the group of people gathered around his bed and yelps up, hitting the rack behind him.

“Tsuna-nii!” Lambo jumps onto his chest to hug him, he turns back to glare at Sasagawa-sensei and Yamamoto. “Don’t scare him! He just woke up!”

How sad Tsuna’s life must be when he’s being defended by an invisible toddler. But still, Tsuna feels a choked up affection for Lambo when he does this and whispers a quiet thank you.

Sasagawa-sensei, of course, doesn’t see Lambo but just gently steadies Tsuna’s head. “I’m so sorry, Tsuna-kun, I didn’t mean to startle you. Yamamoto, can you grab some ointment? We need to treat his bump. Don’t worry, it’s minor—”

Yamamoto nods and passes her the ointment. “Hey there, Sawada,” he grins when he notices Tsuna looking. “I heard the lights blow out and saw you collapse. That was weird, wasn’t it?”

“Y-yeah…” Tsuna drops his gaze to Lambo instead, wishing he could hug Lambo back. But Yamamoto is here and Reborn probably wouldn’t want Tsuna to give himself away. Speaking of Reborn… the reaper is sitting on Tsuna’s legs, arms crossed, a terrifying frown in place.

“What were you doing there anyways? Did you decide to check out the boxing club because I told you about it?” Yamamoto asks. “You could have come to watch me play baseball instead, its cooler, right?”

“Yeah it definitely is,” Tsuna agrees before he realizes what he said and blushes.

Yamamoto just looks pleasantly surprised and he just ruffles Tsuna’s hair again with a vague, ‘it’s a promise!’ before he takes a seat beside Sasagawa-sensei.

Tsuna and Sasagawa-sensei exchange nervous glances, wondering how they can get Yamamoto to politely leave so they can talk. He can’t just blurt out anything about Ryohei right now, not when he’s Sasagawa-sensei’s secret but Tsuna sort of doesn’t want Yamamoto to leave either. There’s always something calming about Yamamoto and the longer Yamamoto stays (hopefully) Reborn won’t try to kill him (…maybe).

When Sasagawa-sensei finishes rubbing ointment on Tsuna’s head, she murmurs something about calling Tsuna’s mum but Tsuna shakes his head. “I’m fine. I don’t want her to worry,” Tsuna says shakily. “W-we should f-figure out w-what happened to the l-lights.”

Sasagawa-sensei frowns. “No, this is a matter for the cleaning and teaching staff, not the students, Sawada-kun,” she says in a stern way that would normally have Tsuna whimpering away if it was a normal issue but it _isn’t_ and he shakes his head.

“I’m sorry sensei, but you asked me to help and I said I would. I can’t back away now. Not when I met him,” Tsuna grips his sheets, “he doesn’t seem like a bad person!”

“Tsuna…”

“No, Tsuna-nii, you don’t need to help these stupid people, they got you hurt!” Lambo rants while Reborn just slowly picks Tsuna apart with his cool gaze. At this rate, Tsuna’s body will be found frozen by the power of reaper glares and he will never live to be fifteen.

“Say what are you guys talking about?” Yamamoto scratches at his cheek.

“N-nothing, just something I asked Tsuna to help me with but _is quite done, thank you_ ,” Sasagawa-sensei smiles.

Tsuna frowns, about to argue that it’s not over when Yamamoto exclaims, “Oh! Are you playing Sawada’s game too, sensei?”

 _Game?_ Tsuna thinks but says, “What are you talking about, Yamamoto?”

His classmate’s eyes sharpen but his smile remains carefree. “The one where you talk to people that aren’t there. If sensei is playing too, can I join in?”

“I… what?!” Tsuna splutters while Sasagawa-sensei gives a strained laugh.

“Yamamoto, I don’t think—” she begins.

“Yes, why not?” Reborn speaks up, making every heard turn towards him in shock. Tsuna almost forgets that Reborn can make himself visible at will under the panic of _what-why-now-what-are-you-doing-Reborn?_

Sasagawa-sensei tilts her head, “Who—?”

“Hello, I’m Dame-Tsuna’s dearly beloved tutor, Reborn. You could say I’m like the charming wizard you go to for answers in a video game. I taught him everything he knows about spirits.”

“Oh cool!” Yamamoto says, “What kind of character am I then?”

“You can be the knight. Dame-Tsuna needs one.”

“Hey! Don’t go deciding things on your own, Reborn—”

“What,” Reborn says with an undertone of homicidal rage masked with the most (unnerving) adorable gaze, “like what you did, idiot-Tsuna? What did I tell you about _getting involved_?”

Someone might as well as pushed an iceberg into the room because Tsuna doesn’t remember feeling more frigid or frightened of sinking than in that moment.

“Um, Reborn, can I talk to you outside?” Tsuna says while he takes Lambo with him to the door.

“Why yes, anything for my _favourite_ and _most precious_ student in the world,” Reborn says with such sweet poison that Tsuna wants to scream.

“I’ll-be-right-back,” Tsuna says quickly, grabbing Reborn and pulling him into the hallway.

As soon as Tsuna can discern that they’re alone, he crouches down and hisses, “What are you playing at, Reborn? We can’t involve Yamamoto too! What if he gets hurt?!”

“And you, Dame-Tsuna? What are you jumping into the grasp of another _hungry spirit_ for when I told you to _wait for me to come back_?”

Tsuna’s shoulders slump down. “Sensei asked me for help.”

“Oh, so you should let every human with a ghost problem manipulate and suck you dry?”

“But—”

“Stupid reaper has a point,” Lambo adds unhelpfully.

“Look at the consequences of your actions, Tsuna! Now we have an originally uncorrupted spirit that’s got a taste of your warmth. It will come back for you, don’t shake your head. It _will_. And all because you had to reveal your gift to two shadowed mortals.”

“I—”

“So can you blame me, Tsuna, if I decide, now that you’re involved, to put them forth as bait? If we’re lucky, that spirit will go after them instead of you and we can exorcise it swiftly.”

“We can’t just do that!” Tsuna hisses at him.

“Why not? They would use _you_.”

Again, Lambo nods unhelpfully. Someone help Tsuna, please.

“Reborn, they’re people!”

“So?”

Tsuna wants to pull his hair out. His own hair, not Reborn’s because that would just lead to pain and suffering on Tsuna’s part.

“Reborn, I’m not sure if anyone’s tried to explain things to you but human beings shouldn’t use other humans as live bait. It’s wrong,” Tsuna begins, questioning why this conversation has spun from blaming each other for this whole Ryohei fiasco to trying to help Reborn’s inner sociopath understand a typical human’s perspective on morals. If anything, he should be lecturing Lambo not Reborn or both or whatever. “We should try to protect other people, especially if they’re innocent.”

At least that’s what the anime heroes in the television shows always said when Tsuna was cooped up at home. Seems legit and logical.

But… Reborn just scowls, like Tsuna isn’t speaking the right language and maybe it’s the reaper thing again or maybe—the pain returns again, insistently scraping down at the same spot as before with the same blunt-katana-like pain.

Something smacks Tsuna in the forehead and Tsuna fumbles around to catch it.

“Stupid Reborn!” Lambo almost escapes Tsuna’s arms to tackle Reborn but luckily Tsuna hasn’t dropped Lambo yet and looks down at what Reborn threw at him.

“…Tylenol?” Tsuna blinks while Lambo reaches over to grab it.

“Hyper-intuition, when used too much, can cause migraines and even physical injury if you overdo it, especially for a beginner. The only reason you fainted earlier was because of hyper-intuition overuse. I neglected to explain that to you, so that’s on me. Luckily you only passed out and had a simple migraine. Next time you should use more care in exercising your hyper-intuition,” Reborn echoes in a clipped tone.

Did Reborn just…?

“Well?” his tutor calls when Tsuna doesn’t follow, “If you’re going to commit yourself to helping these mortals regardless of my ever wise and flawless advice than we might as well dive into the consequences so that I can tell you later that I told you so.”

 _Never mind_ , Tsuna scowls as Lambo berates Reborn for being a bully. But he holds on to the Tylenol and doesn’t swallow it right away. The only tangible proof that Reborn might have apologized… sort of.

-

“Is everything alright?” Sasagawa-sensei asks when they return.

“Of course,” Reborn bows dramatically with a flourish once he hops back onto Tsuna’s head. “Shall we get started on your ghost problem?”

Sasagawa-sensei, to her credit, doesn’t falter in her smile. “I’m sorry but _we_ are not going to do anything at all. I shouldn’t have involved a student. You and Yamamoto can go home now, Tsuna-kun. I’m truly sorry to have put you in danger.”

“Aw, so we’re not playing then?” Yamamoto looks disappointed. If only he knew.

“But what about Ryohei-san?” Tsuna can’t help but speak up. Everyone’s right. He’s an idiot. “I don’t think we should leave him alone, he seems—”

“No,” she nearly shouts. “No,” she says softer this time, “he’s too dangerous. The lights…”

“But he didn’t want to hurt anyone!”

Sasagawa-sensei’s purse clutters to the ground, contents rolling against the ground while Yamamoto shows no expression, his gaze reminding Tsuna of when Yamamoto is preparing to hit a winning strike.

“I heard him,” Tsuna keeps going, because if he stops now, he doesn’t think he’ll be brave enough to continue. “He said that he was dangerous. I think he wanted to protect you, that’s why he stopped haunting you, sensei! He didn’t want to accidentally hurt you. Not sure why he hangs around the gym but he wasn’t hurting anyone… just… encouraging them maybe? I don’t even know if that’s allowed but he ran as soon as he thought he was a danger to anyone! He’s not dangerous. Not knowingly. I think you two need to talk.”

For a long moment, Sasagawa-sensei doesn’t reply. Only stares down at the picture of her brother that has slipped out of her purse.

“…That sounds like him,” she doesn’t look up, her voice choked up.

“Sensei…”

“Alright,” she straightens up. “I’ll try one more time. But after that, no more. Yamamoto,” she turns to him, “I am sorry to burden you with my personal problems but if Reborn-san believes that you should be here as well…”

Reborn just nods, that calculating gleam back. Tsuna just wants to shiver and scream at Reborn to leave Yamamoto be but he doesn’t think Ryohei will hurt anyone…

“Sounds fun,” Yamamoto says (he really has no idea, Tsuna thinks sadly as Lambo calls the baseball player a ninny.)

“Chin up, Tsuna,” Reborn whispers against his ear. “We’ll see if this ghost of yours is worth all the trouble soon enough.”

-

“He’s lingering near your office,” Reborn tells them before Tsuna can use his hyper-intuition. Then before anyone can thank him, Reborn tells Tsuna to take his Tylenol or else.

They rush towards the teacher’s lounge, where all the offices are crammed together in typical Japanese micromanaging space. Each step adds to Tsuna’s pounding headache but more disorientating is trying to turn his ‘senses’ or his ‘hyper-intuition’ off. It’s like walking in a funnel, with muted sight and hearing. He’s never tried to focus on his so called ‘hyper-intuition’ before today, never tried to sort out what he can sense but now that he has it _hurts_ so much but it hurts more to try to turn it off.

They’re getting closer.

Tsuna sees a glimpse of silver hair, a figure touching Sasagawa-sensei’s desk with gentle reverence and he speeds up. His steps must be as loud as a clumsy giraffe’s because Ryohei jumps up in surprise, sees them and makes for the wall but no, he can’t go, not now—

“ _Wait!_ ” Tsuna howls, jumping up to tackling poor Ryohei to the ground. (Poor Lambo just hangs on to Tsuna’s chest in bewilderment.)

Ryohei is so stunned to see Tsuna flying towards him that they both land with a painful thud (well, for Tsuna anyways. Ryohei can’t feel pain anymore. Not physical pain.)

“Whoa, there little fella! You shouldn’t throw yourself like that, you could get extremely hurt!”

“…No… Time…” Tsuna huffs, seeing bits of light against his vision. Maybe he should have taken that Tylenol sooner, “…You… Talk… Sensei... Please…”

“What are you—” Ryohei hears the other footsteps, how can he not? And he freezes, catching sight of his sister, her hair in disarray as she scans the room for his shadow but sees nothing. His breath hitches, “…Kyoko-chan…?”

“Oni-san?!” she looks around at her desk, to where Tsuna is, to where the windows are. “Are you there?! _Oni-san_!”

Ryohei hovers beside Tsuna, still frozen. His hand poised up to touch her but too paralyzed to move forwards.

“…Talk to her,” Tsuna whispers so only Ryohei and a scowling Lambo can hear. Yamamoto is rushing over to him, asking where the ‘invisible man’ is.

“But I—”

“She knows I can see you. I can tell her for you. Just _talk_ to her.”

He shakes his head furiously. “I can’t! Don’t you see?! I’m hurting her! I’m always hurting her, it’s better if I stay away—”

“Don’t be stupid!” and it’s Lambo who shouts this, not Tsuna or Reborn. Both of them stare at the little ghost in awed shock (Tsuna) and mild surprise (Reborn). “Don’t you know how lucky you are?! You still have someone who cares about you, who doesn’t care you’re a monster! And Tsuna-nii got a headache and bruises just because he’s helping someone stupid like you. Go _talk_ to her!”

Ryohei’s jaw drops at the same time that Yamamoto starts asking Tsuna if he’s alright but Yamamoto’s voice feels like a distant echo from another world compared to the familiar fear that Tsuna sees then in Ryohei.

“…She really does love you,” Tsuna tells him again so that the whole room can hear, “…And she’s sorry, isn’t that right, sensei?”

Kyoko Sasagawa hovers over where the space that Tsuna is speaking to, studying the faint shadow of a figure she sees there, her lips trembling with watery tears.

“…Oni-san…?”

After a beat, Ryohei whispers, “I’m here, Kyoko-chan, I’m _here_ and there’s nothing to be sorry about!”

He looks like he’s going to throw his arms around her but he doesn’t. Only lets his hand hover over her cheek as she looks cautiously over at Tsuna for confirmation. Trembling, too, Tsuna nods, and sensei—no, Kyoko Sasagawa—circles her arms around the space, the shadow she sees.

She doesn’t say _I miss you_ or _goodbye_ or _please how can I get you to move on_. No, she just says, “Welcome back.”

-

The story, as sensei explained it earlier to Tsuna goes like this:

Once there was a girl named Kyoko and she had a wonderful (yet crazily enthusiastic) brother named Ryohei. He was like a star to her, super-fast and super strong. To be honest, she wanted to be just like him when she grew up. A boxing champion.

But girls don’t grow up to be boxers, her mother said when Kyoko confided this secret wish to her. Her mother told her not to bother anyone else with such nonsense so Kyoko locked her wish up tight. Indulged in feminine things, never wanting her brother to look at her in the same disappointment mother did.

Yet she always watched Ryohei practice, always asked him for advice, always, always…

She wondered what would happen if she went to ask him for lessons. Asked him to make her a boxing star like him.

One problem though… he was always fighting with someone so she couldn’t ask. And he wasn’t just boxing, but fighting on the street. If he saw a kid being beaten up, he would try to get justice. He’d see it as good boxing practice. He’d come home black and blue and Kyoko would always know why because she was always watching.

And as they grew older and Kyoko locked more of her secret heart up, he’d start getting bruised for ‘defending her honour’ as if she couldn’t defend herself too, as if she wanted him to get hurt on her behalf…

She yelled at him. Called him stupid. Told him that she hated it when he fought (not true, not true, she only hated it when he got hurt.)

Pushed him away into the gym. Surprised him when she pulled out her own boxing gloves, secretly bought with her own allowance, challenged him, told him he wasn’t the only boxer in the family and…

God, she’d never seen him look so proud of her until then.

If she hadn’t challenged him. If she hadn’t gotten into the ring with him at that time, at that night, maybe…

Maybe the lights wouldn’t have fallen.

Maybe he wouldn’t have pushed her out of the way.

Maybe she could have saved herself (saved him.)

-

The Sasagawa siblings don’t talk, unless silence counts as a different sort of language. Sometimes Tsuna thinks it should. There are so many different silences he’s had to sift through, to decode in vain. Right now, though, they don’t seem inclined to use Tsuna as a ghost-to-human translator.

“So he’s there right now?”

Tsuna jumps, almost forgetting that Yamamoto beside him. “Uh, yeah. I think sensei can see his shadow… faintly? Or something…? She didn’t really explain…”

“Some humans can see shadows but nothing more. True natural-born sight is rare. Gaining the sight is a different story. Lots of blood involved. And corpses,” Reborn interjects.

Yamamoto’s eyes grow wide. “That’s some impressive world building you have going on there.” Tsuna tries to tell Yamamoto that it’s real but Yamamoto just looks contemplative as he studies the Sasagawas (well, sensei only). “It seems like a lonely game… not something I would want to play all the time. No one seems to win.”

Tsuna swallows, thinking of Haru and Lambo. “Yeah… I guess…” But some people have no choice but to play…

“Still,” Yamamoto shrugs. “She seems kind of happy.” The distant gaze returns to him before he shrugs it off with his carefree grin. “Later, Sawada. I better get home before my Dad worries.”

“Oh, um, can you…?”

Yamamoto zips his lips and winks.

“Hey don’t you wink at Tsuna-nii!” Lambo fumes while Tsuna blushes.

“Definitely someone to look out for,” Reborn murmurs contemplatively.

“Hey don’t involve him in this stuff!”

“I make no promises.”

Scowling, Tsuna goes back to observing Sasagawa-sensei and Ryohei, who seem content for now to hold (?) each other and whisper things that they don’t want translated yet.

“…Do you think they’ll work it out?” Tsuna finds himself whispering to Reborn.

“They better,” Lambo grumbles. Poor kid’s probably had enough of listening to other familial dramas.

“Who knows?” Reborn shrugs, “Humans are unpredictable. Untrustworthy lot.” His shadow is flickering again, the adult shadow seems to bow in a mocking agreement.

Tsuna frowns, rethinking all of Reborn’s behavior today.

“…You know that I trust you, right? Not because I have too, since you’re my tutor but because… well… I just _do_.”

The shadows still and Reborn’s eyes become visible from underneath his fedora.

“I mean,” Tsuna adds quickly before either Lambo or Reborn can interject, “today I was completely useless. I didn’t figure out how to use my flames properly. I couldn’t even use my hyper-intuition without knocking myself out. All I did was talk. But still… you trusted me and you let me try things my own way, even though I’m like this… That means a lot, Reborn. Um, no one’s ever trusted me to do things on my own before… So thank you.”

Reborn stares at Tsuna for such a long time that Tsuna fears that he’s said the wrong thing until Reborn says, “…You’re not completely useless, you know.”

“Hey!” Lambo scowls, escaping Tsuna’s arms to try and smack Reborn.

Reborn, of course, flawlessly dodges each hit.

But Tsuna doesn’t even feel hurt or confused or whatever it is he usually feels around Reborn. He heard the words but they meant nothing. _You’re not completely useless, you know_ , Reborn said to him.

It was almost gentle.

Tsuna can’t help but feel warm.

-

Interlude: A phone call from Japan to Italy

-Sweetheart! Are you alright? Did something happen? Did anyone attack you?!

-Ah! No, not at all, darling! I just wanted to know how you were!

-Oh, I missed you too, sweetheart but you know this line is only for emergencies… you nearly gave me a heart attack…

-[brighter than usual] We needed to talk.

-Oh [sound of dropping phone and fumbling] ah, so what did you want to discuss?

-It’s about Tsuna’s lessons… and his sight.

-Everything going smoothly? Dino isn’t _harassing_ you is he?! When I get my hands on that blond, cocky son-of-a—

-…Dino?

-Oh I knew I couldn’t trust some young upstart exorcist—

-Never mind, dear. I just wanted to ask about how safe this exorcist business is. I mean I’ve heard of this named _Reborn_ from, uh, Dino, and I was wondering if he was any danger to our baby…

-You don’t need to worry about a thing, love. No one like _Reborn_ would ever go near him. Dino will make sure of it. And like I told you before, Tsuna will be perfectly safe. He has to do this alone. I can’t tell you anymore about the Vongola.

-…Ah. I see. Well then.

[Dial tone]

-Honey? Sweetheart? Don’t I get a kiss goodbye?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: More on the Sasagawa siblings and an episode focused on Yamamoto


End file.
